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K.^«M&f#»soyB!i& 


Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 


One  for  Each  Week 


AND 


Other  Essays 


BY 

WILLIAM  WATSON  WOOLLEN 

V 


With  Fifty-Two  Colored  Plates 

Twenty-One  Half-Tone  Photogravures 

and  Twelve  Text  Figures 


"There  is  a  pleasure  in  the  pathless  woods, 
There  is  a  rapture  in  the  lonely  shore, 
There  is  society  where  none  intrudes, 
By  the  deep  sea  and  music  in  its  roar : 
I  Jove  not  man  the  less  but  nature  more."" 


ScOTT-MiLLER  COMPANY  :  Publishers 

INDIANAPOLIS,  IND. 

1907 


Copyright,  1907, 

By  WILLIAM  WATSON  WOOLLEN 
Published  March  1,  1907. 


/Main  Lib. 
Agric.  Dept 


£0e  cftfbren  anb 
(0  Booft  ie  bebtcaf  eb  8g  if  0  dufflor, 
can 


"  I've  plucked  the  berry  from  the  bush,  the  brown  nut  from  the  tree, 
But  heart  of  happy  little  bird  ne'er  broken  was  by  me. 
I  saw  them  in  their  curious  nests,  close  crouching,  slyly  peer 
With  their  wild  eyes,  like  glittering  beads,  to  note  if  harm  were  near7 
I  passed  them  by  and  blessed  them  all  ;  I  felt  that  it  was  good 
To  leave  unmoved  the  creatures  small  whose  house  was  in  the  wood.'* 


256239 


dta*- 


/o 
jtil    G&t 


Indianapolis  fa 


/£ 


rrtt.   **.. 


*%&  ff  A&t*. 


-A 


ou  0fag  tflem  aff!  anb  therefore?  for  gain 

&f  a  0canf  flanbfuf  more  or  fees  of  wfleaf, 
4)r  rge,  or  Barfeg,  or  0ome  offler  grain, 
afc^eb  up  at  r<xubont  8g  inbu0frtou0  feet, 
lHng  for  worm  or  teeefnf  after  rain! 
a  few  cherries,  t?af  are  not  00  0weef 
are  f  (Je  0on^0  f  ?e0e  unint^iteb  ^ue0t0 
at  f^eir  fea0t  wit^  comfortaBfe  0rea0t0. 


©o  gou  ne'er  f$tn&  w^at  wonbrou0  8etn00  t?e0e? 
©o  gou  ne'er  t^inft  w^o  mabe  t^em,  anb  w^o  taught 
£#e  btafect  t^eg  0peaft,  w^ere  mefobie0 
are  tge  inferpreter0  of  tfl 

worb0  are  0ong0  in 
t^an  in0trument  of  man  e'er 
n  in  f0e  f  ree^to^0  et?en 
(g,re  ^aff^wag  0ou0e0  in  t^e  roab  to  $eat>en! 

—  Henry  W.  Longfellow 


Contents 


Chapter 


Pages 


I.  Buzzard's  Roost  ...........................................................  i-     8 

II.  Cardinal-  .................................................................  9-  15 

III.  American  Crow  ..................................  ........................  16-  21 

IV.  Blue  Jay  -  22-  28 
V.  Red-tailed  Hawk  ...............................................  29-  33 

VI.  American  Sparrow  Hawk  .....  ...................................  34-  38 

VII.  Great  Horned  Owl                                      ...........  39-  43 

VIII.  Screech  Owl  ....................................................................  44-  49 

IX.  Turkey  Vulture    ......                                      ........  50-  56 

X.  Loggerhead  Shrike  .....................................................  57-  61 

XL  Belted  Kingfishei  62-  68 

XII.  Great  Blue  Heron  ...............                              .....  69-  73 

XIII.  Wood  Duck  ........                                 ................  74-  79 

XIV.  American  Woodcock  ..............................................  80-  85 

XV.  Killdeer  .......................  86-  90 

XVI.  American  Robin  .....................................................  91'  97 

XVII.  Bluebird  ..........  98-103 

XVIII.  Song  Sparrow  .............................                ................  104-109 

XIX.  Wood  Thrush  ...............  -  ............  .110-114 

XX.  Brown  Thrasher  .............                       ...................  115-118 

XXI.  Catbird  .......................................  119-123 

XXII.  House  Wren  ...................  .........  114-130 

XXIII.  Kingbird  ..................  I3i-i35 

XXIV.  Phoebe  .....  .................................                                 •  136-141 

XXV.  Bronzed  Crackle  ......  142-147 

XXVI.  Cowbird-  .......                                            .............  148-152 

XXVII.  Meadow  Lark  ............  I53-I57 

XXVIII.  Baltimore  Oriole  ..........................................................  158-163 

XXIX.  Bobolink  ...............................                                   -  164-169 

xii 


Chapter  Pages 

XXX.  Dickcissel  170-174 

XXXI.  Ruby-throated  Hummingbird  - 175-180 

XXXII.  Night  Hawk- 181-186 

XXXIII.  Yellow-billed  Cuckoo  - 187-191 

XXXIV.  Yellow  Warbler  192-197 

XXXV.  Purple  Martin 198-202 

XXXVI.  Barn  Swallow 203-207 

XXXVII.  Chimney  Swift  - 208-215 

XXXVIII.  Scarlet  Tanager 216-220 

XXXIX.  Rose-breasted  Grosbeak  - - -  221-224 

XL.  Indigo  Bunting - 225-228 

XLI.  American  Goldfinch  229-232 

XLII.  Red-eyed  Vireo 233-236 

XLIII.  Mourning  Dove 237-241 

XLIV.  Cedar  Waxwing 242-247 

XLV.  Flicker 248-255 

XL VI.  Red-headed  Woodpecker  - 256-263 

XLVII.  Downy  Woodpecker 264-269 

XLVIII.  White-breasted  Nuthatch 270-273 

XLIX.  Tufted  Titmouse 274-278 

L.  Brown  Creeper 279-281 

LI.  Bob  White  282-288 

LII.  Junco 289-292 

LIII.  Tree  Sparrow 203-295 

LIV.  Why  Protect  the  Birds?  296-306 

LV.  How  to  Have  the  Birds  —.*- 307-312 

LVI.  Nesting  Boxes  313-319 

A  Prayer  for  the  Birds 320 

Index  of  Bird's  Anatomy  321 

Index  of  Orders  and  Families 323 

Index  of  Contents ,325 


XIII 


List  of  Illustrations 


Colored  Plates 

Plate  Page 

I.  Cardinal - 9 

II.  American  Crow  17 

III.  Blue  Jay 23 

IV.  Red-tailed  Hawk 29 

V.  American  Sparrow  Hawk  35 

VI.  Great  Horned  Owl 39 

VII.  Screech  Owl    45 

VIII.  Turkey  Vulture 51 

IX.  Loggerhead  Shrike 57 

X.  Belted  Kingfisher  63 

XL  Great  Blue  Heron 69 

XII.  Wood  Duck  75 

XIII.  American  Woodcock 81 

XIV.  Killdeer 87 

XV.  American  Robin  91 

XVI.  Bluebird 99 

XVII.  Song  Sparrow  105 

XVIII.  Wood  Thrush in 

XIX.  Brown  Thrasher 115 

XX.  Catbird  - 119 

XXI.  House  Wren 125 

XXII.  Kingbird  131 

XXIII.  Phoebe  137 

XXIV.  Bronzed  Grackle 143 

XXV.  Cowbird 149 

XXVI.  Meadow  Lark 153 

XXVII.  Baltimore  Oriole 159 

XXVIII.  Bobolink  165 

xiv 


Plate  Page 

XXIX.     Dickcissel 171 

XXX.     Ruby-throated  Hummingbird 175 

XXXI.     Night  Hawk  181 

XXXII.     Yellow-billed  Cuckoo  - 187 

XXXIII.  Yellow  Warbler 193 

XXXIV.  Purple  Martin 199 

XXXV.     Barn  Swallow 203 

XXXVI.  Chimney  Swift 209 

XXXVII.  Scarlet  Tanager 217 

XXXVIII.  Rose-breasted  Grosbeak  22 1 

XXXIX.  Indigo  Bunting    225 

XL.  American  Goldfinch  229 

XLI.  Red-eyed  Vireo  233 

XLII.  Mourning  Dove 237 

XLIII.  Cedar  Waxwing 243 

XLIV.  Flicker 249 

XLV.  Red-headed  Woodpecker  257 

XLVI.  Downy  Woodpecker 265 

XLVII.  White-breasted  Nuthatch 271 

XL VIII.  Tufted  Titmouse  272 

XLIX.  Brown  Creeper 279 

L.  Bob  White , 283 

LI.  Junco    - 289 

LII.  Tree  Sparrow - 293 

Photogravures 

Plate  Page 

SomerleaZC  Frontispiece 

ii.  Prefatory  Letter 

iii.  A  Bare  Brick  Structure «~ 

iv.  Fall  Creek  and  the  Cottage  

v.  The  Nesbit  Tree ---• 

vi.  The  Cabins 

vii.  The  Stump  and  the  Bole  of  the  Tree  

viii.  Members  of  the  Indiana  Academy  of  Science 

ix.  Song  Sparrow's  Nesting  Place 106 

x.  Kingbird's  Nesting  Place   132 

xi.  Young  Kingbirds  133 

xii.  Vesper  Sparrow's  Nest 151 

xiii.  Indigo  Bunting's  Nest  and  Eggs 151 

xv 


Plate  Page 

xiv.  Hummingbird's  Nest  177 

xv.  Cuckoo's  Nest  188 

xvi.  Young  Cuckoos 189 

xvii.  Mourning  Dove's  Nest 239 

xviii.  Young  Flickers 252 

xix.  Young  Woodpecker  '. 258 

xx.  Food  Chart 296 

xxi.  A  Lesson  in  Weed  Destruction 300 

Figures  in  the  Text 

Figure  Page 

1.  Skull  of  Flicker 254 

2.  Head  of  Hairy  Woodpecker 254 

3.  Tongue  of  Woodpecker 254 

4.  Nesting  Boxes,  variety  of 313-18 


xvi 


Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 
One  for  Each  Week 


CHAPTER  I. 


BUZZARD'S  ROOST. 

Fall  Creek  has  always  had  a  fascination  for  me.  I  was 
born  within  a  half  mile  of  its  mouth,  on  Indiana  Avenue,  in  the 
City  of  Indianapolis,  May  28,  1838.  A  bayou  or  branch  of  it 
crossed  the  avenue  near  our  home  in  the  city,  and  this  caused 
my  mother  much  anxiety,  for  I  often  stole  away  to  it  and 
watched  our  neighbor  Todd's  ducks  paddle  and  feed  in  it. 
Those  were  the  first  birds  with  which  I  became  acquainted. 

Buzzard's  Roost,  about  which  I  am  to  write,  is  located  on 
Fall  Creek  about  eight  miles  northeast  from  its  mouth,  and 
about  the  same  distance  from  the  city  of  Indianapolis.  When 
I  was  about  four  years  old  my  parents  moved  to  a  farm  which 
was  situated  within  about  one  and  a  quarter  miles  of  it  and  I 
lived  there  with  them  in  our  log  cabin  home  until  I  was  al- 
most nineteen  years  old. 

"Backward   gazing  through  the   shadows, 

As  the  evening  fades  away, 
I  perceive  the  little  footprints, 

Where   the   morning  sunlight  lay, 
Warm  and  mellow,   on  the   pathway 

Leading  to  the  open  door 
Of  the  cabin  in  the  clearing, 

Where  my  soul  reclines  once  more." 

The  country  then  was  new  and  our  advantages  few,  but 
we  were  happy  in  the  fullest  sense  of  that  word. 


Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 


"When  first  the  virgin  forest  heard  the  ring  of  woodman's  steel, 
And  mighty  oaks  lay  prostrate,  the  victim  of  his  weal, 
When  bear  and  deer  and  bison  roamed  the  prairie  wild  and  free, 
The  blessed  old  log  cabin  was  a  comfort  then  to  see." 

"In  the  winter  when  the  wild  wind  howled   and   snow   storms   raged 

without, 

The  great  old  fireplace  cast  a  glow,  a  radiance  all  about, 
And  many  a  happy  child's  sweet  face  reflected  in  that  light. 
There  a  sturdy  father  grew  joyous  at  the  sight, 
And  there  a  patient  mother,  too,  toiled  busy  at  her  loom, 
For  the  spirit  of  the  pioneer  had  yet  no  thought  of  gloom." 

There  was  an  abundance  of  birds  and  wild  animals  in  the 
fields  and  forests  about  us.  In  these  I  was  much  interested. 
Since  my  return  to  the  city  I  have  continued  to  be  interested 
in  outdoor  life,  and  that  I  might  enjoy  it  have  done  much 
tramping.  I  have  not  thought  it  wrong  to  tramp  on  the  Sab- 
bath. Indeed,  while  tramping  on  this  day  I  have  often  felt 
that  I  was  near  to  God,  who  ''in  the  beginning"  "created  the 
heaven  and  earth,"  and  when  He  had  created  them,  "saw 
everything  that  He  had  made,  and,  behold,  it  was  very  good." 
It  was  on  Saturday,  April  17,  1897,  the  day  before  Easter, 
that  I  took  the  train  for  Lawrence,  where  I  found  waiting  for 
me  Jason  M.  Wheeler,  a  pupil  of  mine  in  a  country  school 
which  I  taught  up  in  the  Fall  Creek  country  when  I  was  a 
young  man.  Maly,  for  that  was  the  name  we  knew  him  by, 
and  I  have  been  warm  friends  since  then.  I  went  home  with 
him  and  spent  the  night.  The  drive  to  his  residence  was  pleas- 
ant, the  day  having  been  a  beautiful  one.  It  was  good  to  have 
a  night  in  the  country  with  a  family  so  delightful  as  was  his. 
In  due  time  we  were  served  with  one  of  those  old-fashioned 
country  suppers  like  those  my  mother  prepared  for  us  when 
we  lived  in  the  old  cabin  home.  The  affectionate  regard  shown 
by  each  member  of  this  family  for  the  other  was  noticeable. 
Easter  morning  we  were  up  by  five  o'clock  and  the  fields 
seemed  to  be  alive  with  robins  and  meadow  larks — the  robins 
carolling  and  the  meadow  larks  singing  "spring  of  the  year, 
spring  is  here."  For  breakfast  we  were  served  with  delicious 
country  ham  and  eggs  fried  in  the  gravy.  My  word  for  it,  that 
was  good  eating.  After  breakfast  Mrs.  Wheeler  played  on  the 


The  Nesbit  Beech 


Kellogg 


Buzzard's  Roost 


piano  and  her  daughter  on  the  violin.     This  is  what  I  call 
ideal  living. 

I  very  much  regretted  to  say  good-by  to  the  family,  but 
at  eight  o'clock  did  so,  and  started  for  a  tramp  down  Fall 
Creek  to  Indianapolis,  a  distance  of  about  fifteen  miles,  as  the 
creek  meanders. 

"Across  the  amber  meadows. 

And  through  the    marshes  gray, 

The  sun  a  warmer  yellow, 

Has  chased  the  fogs  away. 

The  buds  have  burst  their  prison, 

For  the  Christ,  the  Lord  has  risen, 

And  lives  again  to-day." 

Maly  walked  with  me  to  Spring  Valley,  now  near  the 
center  of  Fort  Benjamin  Harrison.  It  was  here  that  he  at- 
tended my  school.  We  sat  for  awhile  on  the  stile  and  indulged 
in  reminiscences.  Things  were  changed.  Instead  of  being  a 
schoolboy,  he  now  was  a  father  and  a  grandfather.  Then,  the 
old  frame  school  house  stood  in  a  narrow  valley  between  two 
ranges  of  Fall  Creek  hills.  Rippling  by  was  a  beautiful  rivulet. 
In  front  of  the  schoolhouse,  across  the  road,  gushed  forth  from 
the  hillside  a  spring  of  cool,  clear  water.  In  the  rear  of  it  were 
a  number  of  the  finest  beech  trees  that  I  have  ever  seen.  It 
was  an  ideal  place  for  a  romancer. 

"Nestling  within  the  outskirts  of  the  wood 

A  quaint  old  fashioned  district  school  house  stood. 

The  morning  sunbeams  glimmered  on  the  floor 

So  pure  and  warm  and  bright,  and  through  the  door 

The  happy  song  of  birds  and  bee 

Commingled  with  the  brook's  melody." 

The  old  schoolhouse  had  been  replaced  with  a  bare  brick 
structure.  Not  a  vine  upon  it  or  about  it,  and  now  it  was  go- 
ing to  decay.  The  great  old  beeches  had  been  cut  down,  and 
this  was  true  of  most  of  the  surrounding  forest.  The  hill  from 
which  the  spring  had  gushed  forth  had  been  dug  away  for  the 
gravel  that  was  in  it,  and  this  had  destroyed  the  spring.  The 
rippling  rivulet  seemed  to  have  lost  its  music.  It  was  utter 
desolation  and  enough  to  make  one's  heart  ache. 


Birds  oi  Buzzard's  Roost 


Maly  and  I  parted,  and  I  resumed  my  tramp  in  earnest.  I 
followed  the  rivulet  to  its  confluence  with  Fall  Creek ;  then 
went  to  Vandercook's,  where  I  found  a  pair  of  blue  jays  build- 
ing their  nest  in  a  cedar  on  the  front  lawn.  I  then  left  the 
fields  for  what  once  was  known  as  Ghost  Hollow.  In  less 
than  a  half  mile  I  was  into  the  hills  and  woods.  I  knew  these 
hills  when  I  was  a  boy.  Then  they  were  covered  with  great  old 
poplars,  oaks,  walnuts,  elms  and  other  forest  trees.  Most  of 
these  had  been  cut  down,  and  a  younger  growth  had  taken 
their  place.  After  awhile  I  came  to  an  old  rail  fence  on  the 
west  of  the  Vandercook  farm  and  climbed  over  it  about  two 
hundred  feet  to  the  south  of  The  Cottage.  Before  me  was  a 
veritable  wildwood.  It  was  primitive.  No  stock  had  ever  pas- 
tured in  it.  The  buckeye  and  tulip  trees  were  unfolding  their 
beautiful  foliage.  The  May  flowers  were  just  beginning  to 
bloom.  The  anemones,  pepper  and  salt,  bloodroot,  spring 
beauties,  celandine  poppies,  hepaticas,  trilliums  and  many 
other  wild  flowering  plants  garlanded  the  hill.  This  dense  for- 
est that  I  was  entering  was  a  bird  paradise  and  resonant  with 
bird  song. 

I  had  scarcely  entered  into  this  wild  place  when  I  came 
upon  the  prostrate  trunk  of  a  tulip  tree — a  magnificent  speci- 
men of  its  kind.  It  was  about  seventy  feet  in  length  to  its 
first  branches.  No  doubt  it  had  been  cut  down  by  thoughtless 
hunters  for  a  raccoon.  Then  I  began  the  ascent  of  the  hill, 
upon  which  a  duplicate  of  my  father's  cabins  have  been  built. 
When  near  the  crest  I  heard  a  noise  to  my  right  of  something 
tramping  through  the  leaves.  My  first  thought  was  that  it 
was  the  passing  of  some  wild  animal.  But,  looking  in  the  di- 
rection of  the  noise,  I  noticed  coming  up  over  the  side  of  the 
hill  from  where  the  cottage  stands,  a  man  who  looked  much 
like  the  worst  tramp  that  I  had  ever  seen.  His  felt  hat  drooped 
over  his  forehead.  His  beard  was  sandy  and  cropped  to  about 
an  inch  in  length.  He  was  dressed  in  a  brown  wamus,  a 
pair  of  overalls  of  like  color  and  a  colored  woolen  shirt,  and 
was  carrying  in  his  hand  a  sycamore  pole,  like  a  fishing  rod, 
say,  ten  feet  long.  I  confess  I  was  somewhat  alarmed  when 
I  saw  him  approaching,  for  I  must  pass  immediately  in  front 
of  him.  I  made  up  my  mind  to  make  the  best  of  my  situation, 


Buzzard's  Roost 


and  supposing  that  he  had  been  fishing,  asked  him  what  had 
been  his  luck.  He  raised  his  head  and  said  he  had  been  down 
to  the  creek  but  had  not  been  fishing.  It  then  occured  to  me 
that  he  was  a  member  of  a  family  with  which  I  had  been  ac- 
quainted, and  I  said  to  him,  "Are  you  not  a  White — a  member 
of  the  Bob  White  family?"  He  answered,  "I  am  Bob  White 
myself/'  I  had  known  Robert  White,  his  grandfather,  and  had 
attended  school  with  his  father  when  I  was  a  boy. 

I  became  much  interested  in  Mr.  White,  and  found  that 
he  was  an  illustration  of  the  old  saying  that  "you  must  not 
judge  a  man  by  the  clothes  he  wears."  I  asked  him  many 
questions  about  our  surroundings.  I  told  him  about  the  large 
tulip  tree  that  I  had  seen  near  the  base  of  the  hill,  and  re- 
marked that  it  was  a  shame  to  waste  such  a  tree.  He  an- 
swered, "Yes,  I  know  that  tree,  but  if  you  will  come  with  me 
I  will  show  you  a  much  larger  one  which  was  cut  down  and 
left  to  decay.  When  it  was  standing  it  was  known  as  the 
"Buzzard's  Roost."  I  followed  him  over  the  hills  to  the  pros- 
trate trunk  of  what  once  was  the  second  largest  tree  in  the 
county.  The  illustrations  show  the  stump  of  it  and  upon  it 
a  number  of  the  members  of  the  Indiana  Academy  of  Science. 
The  stump  now  measures  twenty-eight  feet  in  circumference 
at  the  base. 

I  now  had  become  intensely  interested  in  this  wild  and 
beautiful  place.  Mr.  White  walked  with  me  and  pointed  out 
its  boundaries,  and  many  things  of  interest  which  are  there 
to  be  seen.  Among  them  the  reputed  burial  place  of  a  Miami 
Indian  chief.  He  also  told  me  that  the  land  belonged  to  the 
State.  He  seemed  to  enjoy  the  walk  and  tramped  with  me 
after  leaving  the  place  over  many  hills  until  we  came  to 
Mount  Nebo,  where,  at  half-past  eleven  o'clock  he  left  me 
and  returned.  As  we  tramped  he  told  me  of  many  interesting 
things  about  the  hills.  He  had  been  reared  among  them  and 
was  as  familiar  with  what  was  there  as  I  was  with  what  was 
in  my  study.  It  almost  made  my  mouth  water  when  he  was 
telling  me  of  the  fine  pawpaws  that  he  had  gathered  there  the 
autumn  before.  Near  the  top  of  one  of  the  hills  he  showed  me 
the  burrow  of  a  skunk  and  told  me  that  he  had  killed  one 
there  much  to  his  regret.  And  this  is  the  story  of  the  discov- 


8  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

ery  of  Woollen's   Garden  of   Birds  and   Botany,  now  better 
known  as  Buzzard's  Roost. 

It  contains  forty-four  acres,  twenty-nine  of  which  is  a 
primitive  forest  and  fifteen  in  cultivation.  It  is  a  law  of  the 
place  that  no  living  thing  is  to  be  harmed  there  except  as  a 
last  resort  to  prevent  it  from  doing  harm.  The  wild  creatures 
there  seem  to  understand  this  and  many  of  them  have  lost 
their  wildness  and  become  fearless,  gentle  and  friendly,  and 
come  to  the  cabins,  cottage  and  barn  for  food  and  nesting 
places.  The  fox  and  gray  squirrels  have  increased  very  rap- 
idly and  are  gentle  and  saucy.  The  woodchucks  have  their 
homes  along  the  hillsides,  and  it  is  interesting  to  see  them 
scudding  for  these.  The  rabbits  wander  down  from  the  for- 
est and  the  muskrats  from  the  bank  of  Fall  Creek  into  the 
cultivated  portions.  Occasionally  these  do  damage  to  the 
small  trees  and  tender  plants,  but  this  is  compensated  by  the 
fact  that  their  presence  add  numbers  to  the  fauna  of  the  place. 
In  addition  to  these,  red  foxes,  raccoons,  opossums,  skunks, 
minks,  weasles,  chipmunks  and  flying  squirrels  are  found  there. 
To  these  may  be  added  water  and  land  tortoises,  frogs  and 
snakes.  All  of  the  resident  birds  are  found  there  and  it  is  a 
favorite  resting  place  for  the  migrants  in  the  spring  and  au- 
tumn. Because  of  the  fact  that  the  land  has  never  been  pas- 
tured, the  flora  of  the  place  is  abundant,  including  almost  every 
tree,  shrub  and  vine  indigenous  to  this  section  of  the  country. 
The  fifteen  acres  has  been  planted  in  fruit,  special  attention 
having  been  given  to  the  planting  of  that  which  will  provide 
food  for  the  birds.  Other  trees,  shrubs,  vines  and  plants  are 
being  collected  and  planted  with  a  view  of  making  of  the  place 
a  real  garden  of  birds  and  botany,  and  for  all  time  to  come  it 
is  to  be  a  place  for  nature  study. 


20 


CARDINAL. 

(Cardinalis  cardinalis). 
%  Life-size. 


MFORD,  CHICAGO 


CHAPTER  II. 


January  1 — January  7. 

THE  CARDINAL. 

Order,  Passeres  Suborder — Oscines 

Family,  Fringillidse  Genus,  Cardinalis 

Species,  Cardinalis  cardinalis 

Length— 7.50  to  9.25 ;  wing,  3.55  to  4.00 ;  tail,  3.90  to  4.60. 
Permanent  Resident. 

"How  oft  our  trust,  most  deep  and  true, 
Clings  to  some  redbird's  winter  strait^ 

Who  knew  unknowing  why  he  knew, 

That  long  lost  Spring  would  come  again." 

The  family  Fringillidse,  to  which  the  cardinal  belongs,  is 
composed  of  the  finches,  sparrows,  grosbeaks,  and  cross-bills.  It 
is  our  largest  family  of  birds,  having  in  it  about  five  hundred 
and  fifty  species,  or  about  one-seventh  of  the  entire  number. 
Members  of  it  are  found  in  all  parts  of  the  world  except  Aus- 
tralia. They  present  a  wide  diversity  of  form  and  habit,  but 
generally  are  alike  in  possessing  stout,  conical  bills,  which  are 
well  adapted  to  crushing  seeds.  They  are  our  chief  seed  eat- 
ers and  among  our  most  useful  birds.  Because  of  their  seed- 
eating  habits  they  are  not  so  migratory  as  the  insect-eating 
species.  Generally  they  are  fine  songsters. 

The  bill  of  the  adult  male  cardinal  is  of  a  brilliant  coralline 
color,  very  thick  and  powerful  for  breaking  hard  grain  and 

9 


io  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

seeds;  chin  front  and  lores  black;  head  is  ornamented  with  a 
high,  pointed  crest  which  can  be  erected  or  flattened  at  the 
pleasure  of  the  bird ;  iris  of  eye  dark  hazel ;  general  color  of  the 
body  a  cardinal  or  brilliant  red,  darkest  on  the  back,  rump  and 
tail ;  tail  extends  about  three  inches  beyond  the  wings,  and  is 
nearly  even  at  the  end;  legs  and  feet  a  light  clay  color.  The 
adult  female  is  not  so  large  as  the  male.  Her  color  above  is 
light  olive  with  a  yellowish  tinge  on  the  head,  and  brownish 
yellow  on  the  sides;  the  top  of  the  crest,  the  wings  and  tail 
are  nearly  as  red  as  those  of  the  male ;  the  chin,  front  and  lores 
are  light  ash ;  breast  and  lower  parts  a  reddish  drab ;  bill,  eyes 
and  legs  like  those  of  the  male ;  crest  not  so  long. 

There  is  a  beautiful  legend  as  to  how  the  different  colors 
of  these  birds  were  acquired.  Two  Indian  warriors  hated  each 
other.  The  one  had  a  daughter,  Gonda;  the  other  a  son,  To- 
wai.  The  children  were  forbidden  to  speak,  but  loving  each 
other,  they  met  in  the  forest  and  stayed  so  long  that  their  irate 
parents  missed  them  and  went  in  search  of  them.  The  winds, 
the  trees,  the  fireflies,  the  fire  and  the  leaves  rescued  them  and 
suddenly  they  were  changed  into  birds.  They  chose  to  become 
sparrows  and  hence  the  cardinal  is  of  the  sparrow  or  finch 
family.  There  was  great  confusion  and  the  birds  of  the  forest 
bade  them  fly  from  the  flames  of  the  fire  that  had  been  kindled 
by  the  fireflies  in  the  dead  leaves  to  effect  the  change.  The 
birds  said  to  them,  "You  have  wings,  do  not  look  at  the  earth, 
lest  you  grieve  to  leave  it."  Gonda  was  obedient  and  flew 
above  the  flame  and  was  only  tinged  with  it.  But  Towai  loath- 
ing to  leave  the  earth,  lingered  so  long  that  his  feathers  be- 
came red  from  the  flames,  and  the  soot  blackened  his  face. 
Since  then  these  birds  have  been  devoted  to  each  other  and  it 
is  said  that  when  they  once  mate,  it  is  for  life. 

The  cardinal  is  known  by  various  names,  most  of  which 
have  been  suggested  by  different  features  and  characteristics 
of  the  bird.  For  instance,  it  is  called  the  Virginia  Nightengale 
because  of  the  fact  that  it  was  first  found  in  large  numbers  in 
Virginia  and  its  beautiful  song  was  suggestive  of  that  of  the 
nightengale  of  Europe,  the  redbird,  the  crested  redbird,  and 
the  cardinal  grosbeak  because  of  its  color  and  the  great  size 
of  its  beak.  In  his  Hoosier  Bards,  my  friend,  Benjamin  S. 


The  Cardinal 


ii 


Parker,  being  displeased  that  so.  beautiful  a  singer  shouldvbe 
named  for  the  shape  of  his  beak,  writes: 

"When  golden  pippin  trees  are  white 

Some  mellow,  liquid  notes  are  heard, 
That  mingle  in  one  brief  delight 

The  thought  of  man,  the  soul  of  bird. 
Sing  on  my  redbird!    strains  that  speak 

A  tenderer  hope  than  words  can  tell; 
The  boor  who  named  thee  for  thy  beak 

Had  never  felt  the  witching  spell 
Of  wild  bird  music,  such  as  cleaves 

The  crust  of  pride,  and  wafts  the  soul 
From  hate  that  blinds,  and  care  that  grieves 

To  love  taught  art's  divinest  goal." 

As  a  rule  cardinals  begin  to  sing  in  February  and  they 
continue  singing  throughout  the  spring,  summer  and  autumn. 
I  was  at  Buzzard's  Roost  January  1,  1905.  It  was  a  beautiful 
day  and  so  warm  that  the  bees  were  in  flight  and  the  cardinals 
were  singing  most  beautifully.  I  spent  the  last  half  of  August, 
1904,  there  as  a  vacation.  I  then  noticed  that  the  cardinals  were 
singing  more  than  any  of  the  other  birds.  August  17,  I  made 
this  entry  in  my  note  book :  "The  cardinal  was  the  first  bird  to 
sing  this  morning  and  at  6:30,  as  the  almost  blood-red  sun 
sank  behind  the  trees,  I  heard  him  singing  within  a  few  hun- 
dred feet  of  where  I  first  saw  him  January  4,  1898."  Both  male 
and  female  sing;  the  female  sings  in  an  undertone  and  more 
softly.  In  Harper's  Magazine  for  March,  1906,  is  a  most  charm- 
ing article  by  Jennie  Brooks  in  which  she  tells  of  the  ways  of 
two  cardinals  which  nested  in  the  yard  about  her  home  for 
several  years  in  succession.  In  speaking  of  the  ways  of  the 
male  she  says,  "This  bird  had  and  has  the  most  astonishing 
voice  I  ever  heard,  and  it  did  seem  that  summer  as  if  even 
the  birds  themselves  stopped  to  listen  when  he  sang  at  twi- 
light. One  by  one  their  voices  dropped  away  as,  just  when  the 
stars  came  twinkling  out  each  evening  he  flew  to  the  highest 
tree-top  in  our  garden  and  poured  out  his  heavenly  notes.  The 
purity  of  its  tone,  and  his  wonderful  range  and  flexibility  of 
voice  I  have  never  heard  equalled  by  any  bird.  The  vesper 
song,  even,  did  not  satisfy  his  soul,  and  often  when  a  light 


12  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

shone  from  our  window  across  the  vine  where  he  slept,  at  ten 
or  eleven  o'clock  at  night,  he  suddenly  awakened  and  began 
to  sing.  Out  into  the  stillness  of  the  night  he  flung  the  exquis- 
ite sweetness  of  his  song.  Then  came  the  trilling,  perfect  bub- 
bles of  music  and  a  run  from  low  C  up  to  B  flat  C,  in  endless 
repetition,  until,  breathless  and  sleepy,  he  must  perforce  give 
over  the  concert  until  dawn.  But  repeatedly  subdued  half- 
tones came  out  from  among  the  leaves,  as  if  he  were  hardly 
yet  persuaded  that  the  lamplight  was  not  some  new  kind  of 
sunrising."  In  speaking  of  the  ways  of  the  female  she  says, 
"She  sometimes  added  to  the  charm  of  her  flight  by  sitting  on 
the  twig  for  two  or  three  minutes,  before  stepping  into  the 
nest,  and  pouring  forth  notes  of  bewildering  sweetness.  This 
was  her  especial  accomplishment — to  fly  home  and,  before  set- 
tling down  to  the  monotony  of  brooding,  whistle  ecstatically. 
Many  times  in  the  day  did  she  repeat  this.  Occasionally  on  the 
nest  she  would  whistle  and  call  in  such  low,  clear  tones,  rais- 
ing her  head  to  listen  for  my  answer  or  for  her  mate's,  if  he 
were  in  the  vicinity,  that  I  felt  she  had,  in  the  joy  of  maternity, 
forgotten  all  its  pain."  At  Buzzard's  Roost  I  have  enjoyed  these 
responsive  songs,  the  male  singing  from  the  tulip  tree  near 
the  cottage  and  the  female  from  the  timber  near  the  bank  of 
Fall  Creek. 

The  bill  of  a  bird  is  its  most  important  organ.  By  its 
shape  an  ornithologist  can  tell  to  what  family  the  bird  be- 
longs and  upon  what  the  bird  feeds.  Mr.  Frank  M.  Chapman 
in  his  Bird  Life  has  well  said,  "The  variety  of  offices  performed 
by  the  bill,  and  the  corresponding  numerous  forms  it  assumes 
are,  doubtless,  without  parallel  in  the  animal  world ;  and  won- 
derful indeed  are  the  forms  it  assumes  to  supply  the  appetites 
of  birds  who  may  require  a  drop  of  nectar  or  a  tiny  insect  from 
the  heart  of  a  flower,  a  snake  from  the  marshes,  a  clam  or  a 
mussel  from  the  ocean's  beach,  or  a  fish  from  the  waters.  The 
bills,  therefore,  become  a  forceps,  lever,  chisel,  hook,  hammer, 
awl,  probe,  spoon,  spear,  sieve,  net  and  knife — in  short,  there 
is  almost  no  limit  to  its  shape  and  uses."  The  cardinal,  as  we 
have  seen,  has  a  grosbeak  and  this  well  serves  it  in  cracking 
and  crushing  its  food,  which  consists  of  the  larger  seeds,  small- 
er nuts  and  wild  fruits.  The  large  cavity  in  its  bill,  no  doubt, 


The  Cardinal  I3 


adds  character  and  tone  to  its  voice,  and  makes  of  it  the  fine 
singer  that  it  is. 

The  cardinal  is  not  a  migrant.  In  this  regard  its  history 
is  unique  and  interesting.  Originally  it  was  a  bird  of  the 
south.  But  gradually  they  have  extended  their  range  until 
now  they  are  found  in  Iowa,  Indiana,  southern  New  York,  and 
casually  in  Maine,  Ontario,  southern  Michigan  and  Minnesota 
and  west  to  Kansas  and  Texas.  As  I  have  already  said,  Jan- 
uary 4,  1898,  I  found  a  pair  of  them  in  the  timber  strip  bor- 
dering Fall  Creek  at  Buzzard's  Roost,  and  seemingly  very 
happy,  notwithstanding  it  was  a  very  cold  day  and  the  earth 
was  covered  deep  with  snow — and  thereabouts  they  could 
have  been  found  every  day  in  the  years  which  have  gone  by 
since  then.  In  his  interesting  bulletin,  Some  New  Facts 
about  the  Migration  of  Birds,  Mr.  Wells  W.  Cooke  says  that 
the  lives  of  many  cardinals  and  quails  are  spent  within  a  circle 
of  ten  miles.  Mr.  James  Lane  Allen  evidently  understood  this, 
for  in  The  Kentucky  Cardinal  he  says :  "With  almost  every- 
thing that  he  touches  this  high  herald  of  the  trees  is  in  con- 
trast. Among  his  kind  he  is  without  a  peer.  Even  when  the 
whole  company  of  summer  voyagers  have  sailed  back  to  Ken- 
tucky singing  and  laughing  and  kissing  one  another  under  the 
enormous  green  umbrella  of  nature's  leaves,  he  still  is  beyond 
them  all  in  loveliness.  But  when  they  have  been  wafted  away 
again  to  brighter  skies  and  to  soft  islands  over  the  seas,  and 
he  is  left  alone  on  the  edge  of  that  northern  world  which  he 
has  dared  invade  and  inhabit,  it  is  then  amid  black  clouds  and 
drifting  snows  that  the  gorgeous  cardinal  stands  forth  in  the 
ideal  picture  of  his  destiny." 

I  am  convinced  that  the  cardinals  mate  for  life.  The  pair 
I  found  at  Buzzard's  Roost  in  1898  have  been  seen  near  the 
same  place  whenever  I  have  gone  there.  At  Somerleaze  a  pair 
of  them  can  be  found  upon  the  lawn  at  any  time  of  the  year. 
By  the  first  of  April  they  are  nest  building.  The  nest  is  built 
in  a  bush  or  vine,  usually  three  to  ten  feet  from  the  ground 
and  sometimes  in  the  vines  that  drape  the  walls  and  screen 
the  windows  of  residences ;  occasionally  they  are  built  in  the 
tree  tops.  The  pair  at  Somerleaze  built  their  nest  in  a  cedar  on 
our  front  lawn  about  four  feet  from  the  ground  and  this  gave 


14  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

me  a  good  opportunity  to  observe  them.  The  nest  was  a  rath- 
er bulky  affair  composed  of  twigs,  leaves  and  grass,  and  lined 
with  fine  grass,  roots  and  hair.  The  eggs,  a  clutch  of  which 
ranges  from  three  to  five,  are  pale  gray  and  beautifully  marked 
with  spots  or  blotches  of  brown.  Often  they  hatch  two  broods 
in  a  year.  When  this  occurs  it  is  said  that  the  male  takes 
charge  of  the  first  brood  while  the  female  gives  attention  to 
incubating  the  second,  and  he  faithfully  takes  care  of  them  and 
will  fight,  if  need  be,  for  their  protection.  Indeed,  pugnacity 
is  one  of  the  characteristics  of  the  cardinal.  It  is  said  that 
when  a  pair  of  them  have  established  themselves  in  a  certain 
locality,  the  male  will  not  suffer  another  bird  of  his  kind  to 
trespass  upon  his  territory.  This  characteristic  is  well  por- 
trayed in  Mrs.  Porter's  Song  of  the  Cardinal,  when  she  says : 
"With  his  feathers  plastered  tight,  the  cardinal  lighted  on  a 
willow  and  leaned  to  look,  quivering  with  excitement  and  ut- 
tering explosive  'chips'  for  there  he  was  face  to  face  with  a 
big  red  bird  that  looked  neither  peaceful  nor  timid.  He  uttered 
an  impudent  'chip'  of  challenge,  which,  as  it  left  his  beak  was 
flung  back  to  him.  The  cardinal  flared  his  crest  and  half  lifted 
his  wings,  stiffening  them  at  the  butt,  the  bird  he  was  facing 
did  the  same.  In  his  surprise  he  rose  to  his  full  height  with  a 
dexterous  little  side  step,  and  the  other  bird  straightened  and 
side-stepped  exactly  with  him.  It  was  too  much  for  the  car- 
dinal. Straining  every  muscle,  he  made  a  dash  for  the  impu- 
dent upstart  and  struck  the  water  with  such  force  that  it 
splashed  above  the  willows."  There  are  well  authenticated 
cases  of  a  like  attack  when  cardinals  have  seen  their  own  re- 
flections in  a  window  or  looking-glass.  This  characteristic  of 
the  cardinal  is  taken  advantage  of  by  bird  hunters.  They  pro- 
vide themselves  with  a  cage  constructed  with  a  trap  compart- 
ment, which  is  so  arranged  that  the  cage  can  be  entered  from 
the  outside.  Inside  is  placed  a  captive  cardinal,  and  the  cage 
placed  in  the  neighborhood  where  a  pair  of  cardinals  have 
been  known  to  stay.  Then  the  trapper  conceals  himself  in  the 
immediate  vicinity  of  the  cage  and  whistles  in  imitation  of  a 
cardinal.  If  one  is  near  by,  his  curiosity  will  be  excited  and 
he  will  endeavor  to  find  the  cardinal  that  is  whistling  and  in 
so  doing  will  discover  the  one  that  is  in  the  cage,  and  be 


The  Cardinal  I5 


eager  to  fight  him.  In  trying  to  get  at  the  prisoner,  the  victim 
will  go  into  the  cage  trap,  and  is  thus  caught.  This  nefarious 
business  should  not  be  tolerated  and  should  be  prohibited  by 
law,  and  the  caging  of  birds  made  a  crime.  In  some  states 
they  have  such  laws,  and  I  am  glad  that  finally  such  an  one 
has  been  enacted  in  Indiana.  When  Mr.  James  Lane  Allen 
caught  a  boy  trying  to  trap  his  cardinal,  it  caused  him  with 
indignation  to  say:  "All  day  this  meditated  outrage  has  kept 
my  blood  up.  Think  of  this  beautiful  cardinal  beating  his 
heart  out  against  maddening  bars  or  caged  for  life  in  some 
dark  street,  lonely,  sick  and  silent,  bidden  to  sing  joyously  of 
that  high  world  of  light  and  liberty  where  once  he  sported ! 
Think  of  the  exquisite  refinement  of  cruelty  in  wishing  to  take 
him  on  the  eve  of  May!" 


CHAPTER  III. 


January  8 — January  14. 

THE  AMERICAN  CROW. 

Order,  Passeres  Suborder — Oscines 

Family,  Corvidae  Subfamily — Corvinse. 

Genus,  Corvus  Species,  Corvus  americanus 

Length — 18.50  to  19.50;  wing,  13.00  to  13.50;  tail,  6.90  to  8.00. 
Permanent  Resident. 

"I  hear  no  more  the  robin's  song 

Through  the  gay  network  of  the  wintry  woods; 

Only  the  cawing  crows  that  all  day  long 
Clamor  about  the  wintry  solitudes." 

The  family  Corvidse,  composed  of  the  crows,  jays  and 
magpies,  contains  about  two  hundred  species,  and  members  of 
it  are  found  in  all  parts  of  the  world  except  New  Zealand.  Au- 
dubon  first  separated  the  American  crow  from  the  European 
species  and  gave  to  it  its  distinguishing  name,  Corvus  ameri- 
canus. It  is  one  of  the  best  known  birds.  Its  bill  is  about  two 
inches  long,  of  a  black  color,  strong  and  compressed ;  the  upper 
mandible  is  a  little  convex  and  the  lower  one  straight.  The 
head  is  large,  and  the  wltiole  form  of  the  bird  is  compact  and 
graceful.  The  iris  is  full  and  of  a  brown  color.  The  legs  are 
strong  and  of  moderate  length,  and  the  bird  has  a  noble  car- 
riage when  walking.  In  flight  the  wings  have  a  serrated  ap- 
pearance. The  plumage  is  of  a  deep  black  color,  with  purplish 
blue  reflections,  and  tinged  with  purplish  brown  on  the  back  of 
the  neck.  The  female  is  slightly  less  glossy  than  the  male 
and  a  trifle  smaller. 

17 


1 8  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

The  range  of  the  American  crow  extends  from  northern 
Mexico  to  the  Artie  regions.  It  is  recorded  that  in  the  bleak 
interior  of  Greenland,  five  hundred  miles  northeast  of  Jacob's 
Haven,  Lieutenant  Hallerman  saw  a  mountain  range  swarm- 
ing with  crows,  and  that  they  seemed  to  subsist  on  lemming 
rats,  their  only  fellow  inhabitants  of  those  treeless  solitudes. 
They  have  been  known  to  breed  within  the  Arctic  Circle.  They 
do  not  migrate  in  the  true  sense  of  that  term.  They  are  partially 
gregarious  in  their  habits.  In  October  and  November  they 
collect  into  what  are  called  roosts  and  in  March  they  break 
up  and  separate  into  small  colonies.  The  following  is  a 
graphic  account  of  one  of  these  roosts  near  Indianapolis, 
written  by  my  friend,  George  S.  Cottman.  He  says,  "By  four 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon  the  crows  began  to  come  in  from  every 
point  of  the  compass ;  straggling  at  first,  then  in  flocks  that 
increased  in  number  and  size  till  continuous  streams  seem 
to  be  converging  at  this  point,  and  the  air  overhead  was  fairly 
filled  with  a  chaos  of  black  flakes  soaring  and  circling  about. 
Evidently  they  came  together  for  the  purpose  of  enjoying  a 
grand  social  carnival.  They  congregated  in  the  adjoining 
meadows  in  vast  crowds,  where  they  walked  about  interming- 
ling and  hob-nobbing;  the  rail  fences  presented  long,  unbroken 
lines  of  black,  and  the  isolated  trees  in  the  fields  seemed  sud- 
denly to  have  taken  on  some  strange,  large-leaved  foliage. 
When  the  multitude  took  alarm  and  all  arose  at  once,  they 
were  like  the  famous  cloud  of  locusts,  and  it  looked  as  if  a 
rifle-ball  fired  at  random  would  bring  down  a  score.  As  one 
stood  in  the  woods  the  spectacle  of  these  thousands  of  birds 
swirling  and  eddying  among  the  tree-tops  had  a  bewildering 
effect,  which  was  heightened  by  the  incessant  clamor.  Free 
speech  seemed  to  be  the  order  of  the  occasion.  Every  crow  had 
something  to  say,  and  he  said  it,  and  as  no  individual  could  be 
heard  for  the  others,  the  result  was  a  conglomeration  of 
noises  that  could  be  heard  a  mile,  and  which  sounded  precisely 
like  a  tremendous  escape  of  steam.  The  jollification  continued 
till  long  after  dark,  and  all  through  the  evening  they  kept  up  a 
boisterous,  many-voiced  conversation."  As  soon  as  it  is 
light  in  the  morning,  they  depart  in  every  direction  to  their 
feeding  grounds,  and  sometimes  these  are  many  miles  away. 


The  American  Crow  19 

The  nest  of  the  crow  is  built  in  all  kinds  of  woodland, 
dense  and  open,  river  valleys  and  hill-land.  Often  several  nests 
are  found  near  each  other,  and  when  a  stranger  approaches 
the  community,  the  noise  of  the  assembled  multitude  is  almost 
deafening  until  the  intruder  leaves.  We  have  them  nesting 
at  Buzzard's  Roost  in  the  densest  of  the  woodland  in  the  tops 
of  beech  trees.  The  period  of  nesting  varies  from  February  to 
June  according  to  latitude.  The  nest  is  made  of  sticks  inter- 
woven with  grasses  and  lined  with  soft  roots,  grasses,  feathers 
or  wool.  The  eggs  are  four  to  six,  of  a  pale  greenish  color, 
spotted  and  clouded  with  brownish  green  and  purplish  gray. 
Both  sexes  assist  in  incubation  which  lasts  about  eighteen 
days.  They  are  watchful  and  attentive  to  their  young,  and  it 
is  a  very  pretty  sight  to  see  them  feeding  after  they  have 
left  the  nest. 

Very  generally  the  crow  is  in  disrepute.  There  is  prob- 
ably no  bird  more  generally  and  unjustly  persecuted  than 
it.  In  the  first  place,  this  is  so  because  it  is  black.  Some  one, 
I  think  it  was  Mr.  Selim  H.  Peabody,  has  well  said,  "there 
has  always  been  a  certain  foolish  and  groundless  prejudice 
against  any  creature  which  wears  the  sombre  color;  a  black 
sheep  is  the  derision  of  the  flock ;  a  black  cat  is  the  fit  confident 
of  a  witch;  the  prince  of  evil  is  painted  black;  a  black  man 
is  hardly  admitted  to  the  rights  of  manhood; — and  crows  are 
black.  In  the  next  place,  in  the  great  variety  of  things  which 
furnish  them  a  living,  they  persist  in  eating  certain  items 
which  man  claims  as  his,  and  denies  their  right  to,  particularly 
corn."  And  then  they  are  not  gifted  with  song,  and  they 
are  accused  of  robbing  nests  of  their  eggs  and  their  young. 
Long  ago  Audobon  said,  "The  crow  devours  myriads  of  grubs, 
every  day  in  the  year,  that  nightly  lay  waste  the  farmer's 
fields.  It  destroys  quadrupeds  innumerable,  every  one  of 
which  is  an  enemy  to  his  poultry  and  his  flocks.  I  can  but 
wish  men  would  reflect  a  little,  and  become  more  indulgent 
toward  our  poor,  humble  harmless  and  even  most  serviceable 
bird,  the  crow."  What  Audobon  then  said  as  to  the  value  of 
the  crow  has  since  been  well  established  by  scientific  investi- 
gation. It  is  true  that  during  the  winter  two-thirds  of  the 
food  of  an  adult  crow  is  vegetable  and  the  principal  part  of 


20  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

this  consists  of  corn.  But  the  spring,  summer  and  fall  months 
when  they  are  rearing  their  young,  insects  of  all  kinds,  the 
cicada,  May  beetles,  June  beetles,  and  especially  their  larvae, 
the  well  known  white  grubs,  grasshoppers,  crickets,  cutworms, 
carrion  beetles,  spiders  and  their  eggs,  field  mice,  snakes,  frogs 
and  the  like,  constitutes  the  bulk  of  their  food.  One  of  the 
most  beautiful  bird  sights  that  I  have  ever  witnessed  was 
that  of  about  five  hundred  crows  working  in  a  meadow,  hunt- 
ing for  the  white  grub  which  is  so  injurious  to  our  meadows 
and  all  kind  of  vegetables.  They  commenced  at  one  side  of 
the  meadow  and  worked  it  over  with  a  leader  in  a  V  shape. 
At  Somerleaze  I  have  often  seen  them  singly  and  in  flocks  do- 
ing the  same  thing.  They  have  not  disturbed  our  growing 
corn.  Longfellow  was  right  when  he  wrote: 

"You  call  them  thieves  and  pillagers;  but  know, 

They  are  the  winged  wardens  of  your  farms, 
Who  from  the  cornfields  drive  the  insidious  foe, 

And  from  your  harvests  keep  a  hundred  harms. 
Even  the  blackest  of  them  all,  the  crow, 

Renders  good  service  as  your  man-at-arms, 
Crushing  the  beetle  in  his    coat  of  mail, 
And  crying  havoc  on  the  slug  and  snail." 

The  flight  of  the  crow  is  strong  and  vigorous.  He  seldom 
flies  high  and  especially  when  the  wind  blows,  he  flies  very 
low.  This  calls  to  mind  an  incident  of  my  childhood.  Our 
family  was  large  and  our  parents  of  limited  means.  My  brother 
and  I,  being  the  oldest,  were  required  to  make  ourselves  use- 
ful, both  in  and  out  of  the  house.  Our  milkhouse  stood  about 
fifty  feet  from  the  northwest  corner  of  our  cabin  home. 
Across  the  fields  to  the  northwest,  not  far  away  stood  a  hack- 
berry  tree.  One  morning  mother  put  us  to  churning,  and 
knowing  our  love  for  hackberries,  warned  us  that  if  we  played 
hookey  and  went  to  the  hackberry  tree,  the  crows  would 
come  and  carry  us  away.  Notwithstanding  this,  we  could  not 
resist  the  temptation  to  go  after  hackberries.  We  had  been 
under  the  tree  only  a  few  minutes  when  two  crows  came  over 
the  woods  and  when  just  over  the  hackberry  tree,  the  leader 
called,  "caw,  caw"  and  both  of  them  swooped  down  to  avoid 
the  wind.  Two  boys  were  never  worse  scared  than  we. 


The  American  Crow  21 

Mother's  warning  had  come  to  pass — we  were  to  be  carried 
away !  And  how  we  did  run  to  the  house  and  call  for  her  help ! 

I  have  said  that  the  crow  called,  "caw,  caw."  By  many 
this  is  believed  to  be  their  only  call.  In  fact,  however,  this 
is  varied  much  and  of  this  I  have  fully  convinced  myself  by 
observation.  Mr.  Abbott  in  A  Naturalist's  Rambles  About 
Home  says  that  they  have  twenty-seven  distinct  calls  or 
utterances,  each  really  distinguishable  from  the  other,  and 
each  having  an  unmistakable  connection  with  a  certain  class 
of  actions;  some  of  which  as  for  instance,  the  many  different 
notes  of  the  brooding  birds,  are  heard  only  at  certain  seasons. 

It  is  certainly  true  that  the  crow  is  one  of  the  most  in- 
telligent of  our  birds.  Instances  of  the  exercise  of  much  cun- 
ning and  forethought  on  their  part  are  innumerable. 

"The  crow  is  rather  shy, 
With  a  watchful  eye 
For  danger  coming  nigh, 

And  any  one 

Who  bears  a  gun 
He's  pretty  sure  to  spy. 

"That  he's  selfish,  we  admit, 
And  he  has  a  lot  of  grit, 
And  on  favor  not  a  bit 

Does  he  depend; 

Without  a  friend, 
He  must  live  by  mother-wit." 

And  by  this  mother-wit  they  have  managed  to  outwit 
man,  and  instead  of  being  exterminated  as  other  birds  have 
been,  they  have  gradually  increased  so  that  today  there  are 
more  crows  than  were  ever  before  in  this  country. 


11 


BLUE  JAV. 

(Cyanocitta  cristata). 
?.  Life-size. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


January  15 — January  21. 

THE  BLUE  JAY. 

Order — Passeres  Suborder — Oscines. 

Family — Corvidse  Subfamily — Garrulinse 

Genus — Cyanocitta  Species — Cyanocitta  cristata 

Length — 11.00  to  12.50;  wing,  5.00  to  5.70;  tail,  5.05  to  5.70. 

Permanent  Resident. 

* 

"The  Jaybird  he's  my  favorite 

Of  all  the  birds  there  is! 
I  think  he's  quite  a  stylish  sight 

In  that  blue  suit  of  his; 
And  when  he  lights  and  shuts  his  wings, 

His  coat's  a  cutaway — 
I  guess  it's  only  when  he  sings, 

You'd  know  he  was  a  jay." 

The  subfamily  Garrulinae,  is  composed  of  the  magpies  and 
jays.  The  magpie  of  this  country  is  found  west  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains.  Alexander  Wilson  in  his  American  Ornithology 
says  that  in  1804,  the  exploring  party  under  the  command  Of 
Lewis  and  Clarke  on  their  route  to  the  Pacific  Ocean  across 
the  continent  first  met  the  magpie  somewhere  near  the  head  of 
the  Missouri,  and  found  that  the  number  increased  as  they 
advanced.  Here  also  the  blue  jay  disappeared;  as  if  the 
territorial  boundaries  and  jurisdiction  of  these  two  noisy  and 
voracious  families  of  the  same  tribe  had  been  mutually  agreed 
upon  and  settled.  Major  Bendire  in  his  Life  Histories  of 
North  American  Birds  describes  thirty-one  species  and  sub- 

23 


24  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

species  of  jays.  So  far  as  I  am  advised,  the  blue  jay,  cyano- 
citta  cristatta,  is  the  only  species  of  this  subfamily  that  is 
found  in  the  Middle  States.  Of  all  our  native  birds,  it,  perhaps, 
is  the  most  conspicious  throughout  the  year.  In  outward  ap- 
pearance there  is  no  reason  why  it  should  have  been  placed 
with  the  crow  in  the  family  corvidae;  systemists  tell  us,  how- 
ever, that  structurally  they  are  very  much  alike. 

The  general  colors  of  the  blue  jay  are  purplish  and  ultra- 
marine; the  bill  is  dark  and  well  proportioned;  the  head  is 
ornamented  with  a  light  blue  crest,  which  can  be  elevated  or 
depressed  at  the  pleasure  of  the  bird ;  a  narrow  line  of  black 
runs  along  the  frontlet,  rising  on  each  side  higher  than  the 
eye,  but  not  passing  over  it ;  iris  of  the  eye  hazel ;  collar  of 
black  proceeding  from  behind  the  head,  passes  with  a  graceful 
curve  down  each  side  of  the  neck  to  the  upper  part  of  the 
breast,  where  it  forms  a  crescent ;  wings  and  tail  are  about  the 
same  length,  well  rounded  and  beautifully  barred  with  black  ; 
the  tips  of  the  primaries  and  secondaries  of  the  wings  and 
the  tail  feathers  are  white ;  breast  and  sides  under  the  wings 
dirty  white,  faintly  stained  with  purple ;  belly  reddish-white ; 
legs  and  feet  black ;  toes,  four  in  number,  are  strong,  with 
hind  claw  large  and  longer  than  the  toe.  There  is  little,  if  any, 
difference  in  the  appearance  of  the  sexes. 

The  range  of  the  blue  jay  extends  from  the  Texas  and 
Florida  coast  north  through  the  United  States,  east  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains,  to  New  Foundland  and  Hudson  Bay.  They 
breed  throughout  their  entire  range.  They  are,  however,  non- 
migrants  ;  when  once  located  they  remain  with  us  all  the  year, 
and  are  always  ready  to  make  themselves  known.  During 
the  second  week  in  January  1898,  I  was  at  Buzzard's  Roost 
on  a  tramp.  The  forest  was  most  beautifully  bedecked  with 
snow  and  in  the  very  midst  of  it  I  came  upon  a  cardinal,  blue 
jay  and  winter  wren  upon  the  same  tree.  The  cardinal  was 
shy,  the  blue  jay  saucy  and  the  wren  just  as  busy  as  it  could 
be  at  work  searching  for  food.  Another  of  my  pleasant  recol- 
lections is  that  of  a  tramp  made  several  years  ago  in  January, 
the  next  morning  after  a  deep  snow  had  fallen.  The  day  was 
one  of  those  cold,  crisp  ones  that  makes  the  blood  tingle  in 
one's  veins.  I  took  an  interurban  car  and  went  far  out  into 


The  Blue  Jay  25 

the  country  and  then  tramped  through  it  for  several  miles. 
The  snow  gleamed  in  the  bright  sunshine  and  not  a  track  of 
animal  or  bird  was  to  be  seen.  All  the  world  seemed  to  be 
silent.  Indeed,  its  stillness  was  oppressive.  After  awhile  I 
came  to  a  great  elm  standing  alone  by  the  roadside,  and, 
perched  on  its  topmost  limb,  was  a  saucy  blue  jay  making  him- 
self known  to  me  by  his  shrill  "jay,  jay" — and  I  admired  the 
jaunty  bird  and  his  courage. 

The  blue  jays  commence  nesting  as  early  as  the  middle 
of  March.  In  one  of  my  tramps  on  an  Easter  Sunday,  I  found 
a  nest  quite  completed  in  a  cedar  tree  in  a  farmer's  front 
yard.  Their  nests  usually  are  built  five  to  twenty-five  feet 
from  the  ground  in  a  vine,  bush  or  tree ;  are  not  very  elaborate, 
are  built  of  twigs,  bark,  rootlets  and  the  like  and  lined  with 
finer  material.  The  eggs  are  of  a  greenish  or  yellowish  drab, 
thickly  spotted  with  greenish  brown  and  dull  black ;  three  to 
six  constitute  a  clutch.  Both  birds  take  part  in  the  incubation 
and  feeding  of  their  young,  and  in  their  domestic  relations  and 
habits  are  models  of  propriety  and  devotion.  The  young 
leave  their  nest  when  they  are  about  sixteen  days  old. 

A  communication  from  Richmond,  Indiana,  says:  "A 
most  remarkable  instance  of  unnatural  mating  of  birds  has 
been  brought  to  light  here  by  the  pupils  of  the  Richmond 
High  School,  who  are  students  of  ornithology.  On  one  of  the 
sparcely  populated  streets  in  the  southern  part  of  the  city  there 
stands  a  large  maple  tree  in  which  a  robin  and  blue  jay  have 
built  a  nest.  The  blue  jay  is  regarded  as  an  enemy  to  the 
robin.  In  this  case,  the  blue  jay  is  as  devoted  to  the  robin 
as  it  is  possible  to  be.  When  Mrs.  Robin  leaves  her  nest 
and  eggs  to  go  in  search  of  food,  the  jay  takes  her  place  until 
she  returns."  At  first  blush  this  might  seem  incredible,  but 
I  find  that  Darwin  says,  "It  is  certain  that  distinct  species 
of  birds  occasionally  pair  in  a  state  of  nature  and  produce  hy- 
brids. Many  instances  could  be  given.  Macgillvary  relates 
how  a  male  blackbird  and  female  thrush  'fell  in  love  with 
each  other  and  produced  offspring.'  Several  years  ago  eigh- 
teen cases  had  been  recorded  in  Great  Britain  of  hybrids  be- 
tween the  black  grouse  and  pheasant;  but  most  of  these  cases 


26  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

may  perhaps  be  accounted  for  by  solitary  birds  not  rinding 
one  of  their  own  species  to  pair  with." 

Blue  jays,  like  their  cousins  the  crows,  are  intelligent  and 
ingenious  birds  and  can  communicate  with  each  other.  In 
January,  1902,  my  friend,  Mr.  Max  Munte,  wrote  to  me  say- 
ing: "I  have  a  pair  of  jay  birds  among  my  numerous  family 
of  sparrows.  Their  notes  of  warning  are  frequently  heard 
and  I  invariably  find  that  they  have  discovered  a  screech  owl 
in  one  of  the  large  maple  trees  in  front  of  my  residence — 
and  what  a  noise  they  can  make !  The  other  day  there  was 
quite  an  amusing  scene.  The  pair  of  jays  and  sparrows  tried 
to  dislodge  the  poor  little  owl  from  its  place.  Many  attempts 
were  made  but  all  failed.  All  at  once  the  cry  of  the  jays  and 
the  scolding  of  the  sparrows  ceased.  The  jays  flew  away.  The 
sparrows  in  the  meantime  formed  a  silent  cordon  completely 
around  the  enemy,  and  in  but  a  few  minutes  from  the  time 
the  pair  of  jays  left  the  field  of  battle,  they  returned  with 
nine  new  jay  recruits  which  with  the  original  two  and  the 
hords  of  sparrows,  made  a  formidable  army  against  the  little 
owl,  but  the  brave  little  fellow  would  not  budge,  and  gave  tit 
for  tat  with  bill  and  wings.  All  this  racket  was  kept  up 
until  nearly  night.  The  owl  was  getting  the  best  of  it.  The 
sparrows  one  after  another,  ventured  to  their  homes,  but  not 
without  giving  us  a  taste  of  their  sweet  voices,  scolding  and 
lamenting  bad  luck.  My  two  jays  remained.  The  battle  was 
over  and  the  little  owl  was  victor."  He  adds,  "It  would  be 
interesting  to  know  where  those  nine  jays  came  from.  The 
two  that  went  after  them  undoubtedly  knew  where  to  find 
them.  The  distance  must  have  been  considerable,  if  we  meas- 
ure by  the  length  of  absence.  Also  the  two  messengers  which 
went  after  them  must  have  had  some  way  by  action  or  voice 
to  communicate  their  object  in  coming  after  them,  and  of  a 
prospective  fight  with  their  enemy,  the  owl." 

The  blue  jay  is  not  a  songster.  His  call  notes,  however, 
are  varied  and  some  of  them  are  not  unmusical.  Some  of 
them  sound  like  "cable,  cable,  cable";  "we-hue,  we-hue,  we- 
hue";  "de-leary,  de-leary,  de-leary";  "de-jay,  de-jay,  de-jay"; 
"jay,  jay,  jay."  One  of  my  friends  says  that  when  he  wants  to 
trick  a  man,  he  calls  "jay,  jay,"  and  when  the  man's  attention 


The  Blue  Jay  27 

is  attracted  to  him,  he  will  in  derision  call,  "too-slick,  too- 
slick."  This  may  be  fancy.  Indeed,  the  translation  of  what 
the  birds  say  is  difficult  and  often  imaginary.  The  jay,  however, 
does  have  a  fashion  of  mimicking  the  distress  calls  of  other 
birds  and  when  he  has  done  so  seems  to  delight  in  the  fact  that 
he  has  fooled  them.  It  is  in  winter  that  the  jays  are  most  boist- 
erous and  then  at  times  they  become  very  noisy.  Then  when 
in  flight,  they  often  turn  to  those  behind  and  chatter  long  and 
loudly.  When  nesting  time  comes  they  quit  their  noisy  prac- 
tices and  give  attention  to  the  more  serious  duties  of  rearing 
their  young. 

Since  the  days  of  Audubon,  the  blue  jay  has  been  de- 
nounced, and  has  been  accused  of  being  "dishonest,  cruel, 
murderous  and  villanous."  Audubon  brands  him  as  a  coward 
and  says,  "The  cardinal  grosbeak  will  challenge  him,  and 
beat  him  off  the  ground.  The  red  thrush  or  the  mocking 
bird,  and  many  others,  although  inferior  in  strength,  never 
allow  him  to  approach  their  nests  with  impunity;  and  the 
jay,  to  be  even  with  them,  creeps  silently  to  it  in  their  absence, 
and  devours  their  eggs  and  young  whenever  he  finds  them." 
It  is  said,  however,  that  the  figures  clear  his  name  of  these 
and  other  ugly  charges.  Professor  F.  E.  L.  Beal,  of  the 
United  States  Department  of  Agriculture,  made  an  examina- 
tion of  two  hundred  and  ninety-two  stomachs  of  the  blue  jay, 
collected  in  every  month  of  the  year  from  twenty-two  states, 
the  District  of  Columbia  and  Canada,  and  in  the  summary  to 
his  report  he  says ;  "The  most  striking  point  in  the  study  of 
the  food  of  the  blue  jay  is  the  discrepancy  between  the  testi- 
mony of  field  observers  concerning  the  bird's  nest-robbing 
proclivities  and  the  result  of  stomach  examinations.  The  ac- 
cusations of  eating  eggs  and  young  birds  are  certainly  not  sus- 
tained, and  it  is  futile  to  attempt  to  reconcile  the  conflicting 
statements  on  this  point,  which  must  be  left  until  more  ac- 
curate observations  have  been  made.  In  destroying  insects  the 
jay  undoubtedly  does  much  good.  Most  of  the  predacious 
beetles  which  it  eats  do  not  feed  on  other  insects  to  any  great 
extent.  On  the  other  hand,  it  destroys  some  grasshoppers  and 
caterpillars  and  many  noxious  beetles,  such  as  Scarabeids, 
click  beetles,  weevils,  Buprestids,  Chrysomelids,  and  Tenebri- 


28  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

onids.  The  blue  jay  gathers  its  fruit  from  nature's  orchard 
and  vineyard,  and  not  from  man's ;  corn  is  the  only  vegetable 
food  for  which  the  farmer  suffers  any  loss,  and  here  the  dam- 
age is  small.  In  fact,  the  examination  of  nearly  three  hundred 
stomachs  shows  that  the  blue  jay  certainly  does  far  more 
good  than  harm." 

In  some  localities  the  blue  jay  is  called  the  Tree  Planter. 
He  gets  this  designation  because  of  his  habit  of  burying  nuts 
and  acorns.  Mr.  D.  S.  Smith  of  Crawfordsville,  Indiana,  told 
me  of  an  instance  of  this  kind  that  came  under  his  observation 
which  is  interesting.  It  is  his  habit  to  feed  the  squirrels  about 
his  home.  One  day  he  put  out  for  them  a  pocket  full  of 
chestnuts.  While  doing  it  he  noticed  that  a  blue  jay  was 
watching  him.  Just  as  soon  as  he  left  the  jay  flew  down  and 
got  a  chestnut  which  he  carried  some  distance  and  buried  in 
the  ground.  He  then  looked  around  about  for  a  leaf  and 
having  found  one  took  it  and  covered  the  hole  in  which  he  had 
buried  the  chestnut;  and  this  he  repeated  until  he  had  carried 
away  about  a  dozen  of  the  chestnuts.  Why  did  he  put  leaves 
over  the  holes  in  which  he  buried  the  chestnuts? 


«.  W.  MJMFORD      PUBLISHER,  CHIC'OO 

291 


RED-TAILED  HAWK. 

YT,  Life-size. 


COPYRIGHT  1899,  8Y 
MATURE  STUDY  PUB.  CO.,  CHIOKGO 


CHAPTER  V. 


January  22 — January  28. 

THE  RED-TAILED  HAWK. 

Order — Raptores  Suborder — Falcones 

Family — Falconidae  Genus — Buteo 

Species — Buteo  borealis 

Length — 19.00  to  25.00;  wing,  13.50  to  17.75  ',  tail,  8.50  to  10.50. 
Permanent  Resident. 

"Dimly  I  catch  the  throb  of  distant  flails: 

Silently  overhead  the  henhawk  sails, 

With  watchful  measuring  eye  for  his  quarry  waits." 

The  family  Falconidse  consists  of  about  three  hundred  and 
fifty  species  distributed  throughout  the  world.  One  tenth  of 
these  are  found  in  North  America.  The  family  is  composed  of 
the  falcons,  hawks,  eagles,  kites  and  ospreys,  and  is  divided 
into  three  sub-divisions,  namely:  Accipitrinae,  composed  of 
the  kites,  buzzards,  hawks,  and  eagles;  (2)  Falconidae,  com- 
posed of  the  falcons  and  (3)  Pandioninse,  composed  of  the 
ospreys.  These  birds  are  characterized  by  their  comparatively 
short  wings,  long  legs,  powerful  talons,  and  a  bill  which  be- 
gins to  decurve  from  the  cere,  and  has  the  cutting  of  its 
upper  mandible  sinuated  but  never  notched.  All  of  them  are 
birds  of  diurnal  prey  which  they  take  by  pouncing  upon  it  and 
seizing  it  with  their  talons. 

The  red-tailed  hawk  may  be  called  our  winter  hawk  and 
for  this  reason  the  distinguishing  name  borealis  is  most 

29 


30  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

appropriate.  From  its  abundance,  wide  distribution  and  strik- 
ing appearance  it  is  probably  the  best  known  of  all  the  larger 
hawks.  It  is  about  two  feet  long.  The  body  is  large  and 
muscular.  Its  bill  is  blackish  brown,  much  decurved  and 
well  adapted  to  tearing  its  food  into  shreds ;  cere,  light  yellow ; 
iris,  yellow;  general  color  of  upper  parts  of  the  body,  in- 
cluding the  head  and  a  band  below  the  throat,  dark  brown, 
variegated  with  gray ;  primaries,  dark  brown ;  tail  fan-shaped, 
and  a  rich  reddish  chestnut  with  a  broad  terminal  bar  of 
blackish  brown  and  white  tips;  throat,  creamy  white  with 
brownish  streaks ;  breast,  buffy-white  with  heavy  brownish 
streaks  on  upper  part,  and  few  or  none  on  the  lower  part; 
belly,  silvery  white;  legs  and  feet,  yellow;  claws,  black,  much 
decurved  and  well  adapted  to  seizing  and  holding  its  food. 
Male  and  female  are  alike  in  appearance. 

This  hawk  is  a  resident  of  Eastern  North  America,  west  to 
the  Great  Plains.  It  is  generally  distributed  and  breeds  more 
or  less  abundantly  in  suitable  localities  in  all  portions  of  the 
United  States  east  of  the  Mississippi  River.  North  of  the 
United  States  it  is  found  throughout  the  southern  parts  of  the 
Dominion  of  Canada,  ranging  from  Newfoundland,  Nova 
Scotia  and  New  Brunswick,  through  the  provinces  of  Quebec 
and  Ontario,  west  to  Manitoba  and  the  Northwest  Territory. 
It  is  partial  to  moderately  timbered  districts,  swampy  woods, 
and  the  bottom  lands  of  streams.  At  Buzzard's  Roost  we 
have  a  number  of  them  that  may  be  seen  coursing  their  way 
up  and  down  Fall  Creek  and  a  pair  of  them  nest  in  the  fork  of 
a  beech  tree  in  the  midst  of  the  woodland. 

It  is  thought  that  these  hawks  mate  for  life.  The  nesting 
site  may  be  found  in  or  near  the  same  place  for  several  years  in 
succession.  The  nest  is  usually  built  in  the  fork  of  a  tree  and 
from  thirty  to  one  hundred  feet  from  the  ground,  and  made  of 
sticks,  and  lined  with  small  twigs,  leaves  and  sometimes  grass. 
In  Birds  that  Hunt  and  are  Hunted,  Miss  Blanchan  says, 
"About  eighty  per  cent,  of  nests  found  have  been  in  birch 
trees."  This  statement  must  have  been  based  upon  observa- 
tions made  in  a  country  where  the  prevailing  trees  were  birch. 
Most  certainly  it  would  not  be  justified  by  observations 
made  in  the  Middle  West,  where  there  are  but  few  birch  trees. 


The  Red-Tailed  Hawk  3I 

In  this  locality  nest  building  begins  in  the  latter  part  of  March 
and  both  birds  take  part  in  it.  Fresh  eggs  may  be  found  dur- 
ing the  first  half  of  April,  and  as  late  as  the  middle  of  May. 
Two  or  three,  rarely  four  eggs  are  laid.  They  present  much 
difference  in  size  and  markings;  their  ground  color  is  white 
or  bluish  white,  some  are  entirely  unmarked,  while  others  are 
heavily  splashed  with  many  shades  of  red  and  brown.  So 
far  as  I  have  observed  all  birds  of  prey  lay  but  few  eggs  and 
this,  I  think,  is  a  wise  provision  of  Nature.  Major  Bendire 
says,  "Incubation  lasts  about  four  weeks,  the  male  assisting 
to  some  extent  in  the  duty,  as  well  as  providing  his  mate  with 
food  on  the  nest.  The  eggs  are  deposited  at  intervals  of  about 
two  days."  But  my  friend,  Judge  R.  W.  McBride,  a  most 
careful  observer,  says,  "My  observation  would  indicate  that 
the  period  of  incubation  covers  about  eighteen  days.  Out  of 
twenty-five  sets  of  eggs  that  I  have  taken,  stages  of  incubation 
average  as  follows :  Fresh  April  5 ;  slightly  incubated,  April 
8;  incubation  advanced  one-half,  April  12;  nearly  ready  to 
hatch,  April  17;  young  just  hatched,  April  21." 

Generally  the  red-tailed  hawk  does  not  take  its  food  by 
pursuit,  but  rather  by  waiting  and  watching  for  it  from  some 
elevated  position  and  then  dashing  through  the  air  and  catch- 
ing it  with  its  "sharp  curved  claws,  the  most  deadly  weapons 
to  be  found  in  any  bird's  armament."  At  Buzzard's  Roost, 
one  of  them  that  caught  some  of  our  fowls  was  in  the  habit 
of  perching  high  up  on  the  dead  limb  of  a  sycamore  tree  and 
watching  for  them  to  come  out  into  the  open,  and  then  dash- 
ing upon  them,  and  he  never  missed  his  prey.  This  was  pro- 
voking and  almost  tempted  us  to  get  a  gun  and  shoot  the 
marauder.  Dr.  Fisher  says  in  extenuation  of  the  red-tail's 
conduct  that  while  they  do  occasionally  eat  poultry,  the  quan- 
tity is  so  small  in  comparison  to  the  vast  numbers  of  de- 
structive rodents  consumed  that  it  is  hardly  worth  mentioning, 
the  proportion  being  sixty-six  per  cent,  of  injurious  animals 
to  not  more  than  seven  per  cent  of  poultry.  He  adds:  "How 
are  we  to  account  for  this  hatred  against  birds  of  prey  by  the 
class  of  men  who  should  be  first  to  clamor  for  their  protection? 
Since  they  know  that  hawks  and  owls  attack  poultry,  they  do 
not  stop  to  think  that  the  depredations  may  be  made  by  a  few 


32  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

species,  but  make  sweeping  condemnation  of  the  whole  family. 
The  reasoning  is  much  the  same  as  that  of  an  Indian  or  fron- 
tiersman, who,  being  wronged  by  one  individual,  condemns  the 
whole  race.  It  would  be  just  as  rational  to  take  the  standard 
for  the  human  race  from  highwaymen  and  pirates  as  to  judge 
all  hawks  by  the  deeds  of  a  few.  Even  when  the  industrious 
hawks  are  observed  beating  tirelessly  back  and  forth  over  the 
harvest  fields  and  meadows,  or  the  owls  are  seen  at  dusk  flying 
silently  about  the  nurseries  and  orchards,  busily  engaged  in 
hunting  the  voracious  rodents  which  destroy  alike  the  grain, 
produce,  young  trees  and  eggs  of  birds,  the  curse  of  the  major- 
ity of  the  farmers  and  sportsmen  go  with  them,  and  their  total 
extinction  would  be  welcomed.  How  often  are  the  services 
rendered  to  man  misunderstood  through  ignorance !  The  birds 
of  prey,  the  majority  of  which  labor  day  and  night  to  destroy 
the  enemies  of  husbandmen,  are  persecuted  unceasingly,  while 
that  gigantic  fraud — the  house  cat — is  petted  and  fed  and  given 
shelter  from  which  it  may  emerge  in  the  evening  to  spread  de- 
struction among  the  feathered  tribe.  The  difference  between 
the  two  can  be  summed  up  in  a  few  words — only  three  or  four 
birds  of  prey  hunt  birds  when  they  can  procure  rodents  for 
food,  while  the  cat  seldom  touches  mice  if  she  can  procure 
birds  or  young  poultry.  A  cat  has  been  known  to  kill  twenty 
young  chickens  in  a  day,  which  is  more  than  most  raptorial 
birds  destroy  in  a  lifetime.  *  *  *  Hawks  and  owls  are  comple- 
mentary to  each  other.  While  hawks  hunt  by  day  and  keep 
diurnal  pests  in  check,  owls,  whose  eyesight  is  keenest  during 
the  twilight  and  early  dawn,  capture  nocturnal  species  which 
the  former  are  not  apt  to  obtain." 

The  flight  of  this  hawk  is  strong  and  vigorous.  In  soaring 
and  sailing  it  is  scarcely  surpassed  by  the  turkey  vulture.  In 
the  autumn  of  1902  I  spent  two  weeks  at  Buzzard's  Roost,  tak- 
ing a  vacation  and  studying  the  birds.  Among  the  most  inter- 
esting sights  that  I  witnessed  were  several  afternoon  flights 
of  these  hawks,  the  number  of  birds  ranging  from  six  to  ten. 
When  first  seen  they  would  be  coming  down  Fall  Creek,  just 
•over  the  cleared  bottom  land.  Presently,  before  reaching  Buz- 
zard's Roost,  they  would  turn  towards  the  timber  and  com- 
mence mounting  higher  and  higher  in  spiral  form,  seemingly 


The  Red-Tailed  Hawk  33 

without  motion  of  the  wings,  until  they  were  almost  out  of 
sight  in  the  azure  blue  of  the  sky.  Others  have  seen  them  do 
this  and  have  reported  that  when  they  had  reached  their  high- 
est flight,  like  a  night  hawk,  they  would  suddenly  drop  downward 
until  near  the  earth  and  then  resume  their  ordinary  flight,  but 
I  have  never  seen  this  done.  This  hawk  does  not  sing,  nor  do 
I  know  of  any  species  of  hawk  that  does.  Their  principal  call 
note,  generally  uttered  during  their  aerial  gyrations,  consists  of 
a  shrill  far-reaching  "ke-ah"  repeated  at  short  intervals.  In- 
deed, the  red-tail  may  be  called  a  screamer. 


m  col.  F.  M.  Woodruff. 


AMERICAN  SPARROW  HAWK. 
%  Life  size. 


Copyright       l>y 
Nature  Stuilv  I'uh.  C'o.,  18»H.  C'hicafio. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


January  29 — February  4. 


THE  AMERICAN  SPARROW  HAWK. 

Order — Raptores  Suborder — Falcones 

Family — Falconidse  Sub-family — Falconinse 

Genus — Falco  Subgenus — Tinnunculus 

Species — Falco  sparverius 

Length — 8.75  to  12.00;  wing,  6.55  to  8.15;  tail,  4.20  to  5.60. 
Migration — North,  February  ;  south,  November. 

"The  wild  hawk's  shadow  fleets  across  the  grass, 
Its  softened  gray  the  softened  green  outvying; 

And  fair  scenes,  fairer  grow  while  they  pass, 
As  breezes  freshen  when  the  day  is  dying." 

There  are  about  a  dozen  species  and  sub-species  of  spar- 
row hawks.  Two  of  them,  the  Cuban  and  American,  are  found 
in  North  America.  West  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  a  slightly 
different  sub-species  of  the  American  is  found,  known  as  the 
Desert  sparrow  hawk;  and  in  Lower  California  still  another 
called  the  St.  Lucas  sparrow  hawk.  Next  to  the  Cuban  spar- 
row hawk,  the  American  is  the  smallest  and  it  is  the  handsom- 
est of  our  diurnal  raptores. 

The  bill  of  the  adult  male  of  this  species  is  short,  blue,  tipped 
with  black;  iris  of  the  eye,  ochraceous-yellow ;  top  of  head, 
slaty-blue  with  a  chestnut  patch  in  the  midde  of  the  crown ; 
crescent  back  of  neck,  black ;  hind  neck,  back  and  rump,  light 
rufous ;  wing  coverts,  ashy-blue  with  or  without  black  spots ; 

35 


36  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

wing  primaries  nearly  black ;  tail,  dark  rufous  with  broad  black 
band  near  the  end  and  outer  feathers  and  tips  white ;  throat  and 
upper  neck  on  sides,  white  with  two  black  bands,  one  in  front 
and  one  in  rear  of  the  eyes ;  below  varying  from  white  to  deep 
rufous,  with  or  without  spots ;  legs  and  feet  long,  strong  and 
of  grayish  color ;  claws,  black.  The  adult  female  in  appearance 
is  like  the  male,  except  that  the  back,  wing  and  tail  coverts 
are  barred  with  black,  and  the  hinder  parts  are  more  or  less 
heavily  streaked  with  dark  ochraceous  buff. 

The  range  of  this  hawk  extends  over  nearly  the  entire 
North  American  continent.  It  has  been  identified  as  far  north 
as  the  Great  Slave  Lake,  in  north  latitude  sixty-two  degrees. 
It  is  known  to  be  a  summer  resident  of  Newfoundland,  Nova 
Scotia  and  New  Brunswick  and  the  more  southern  portions 
of  the  Dominion  of  Canada.  In  Indiana  they  are  not  numerous 
in  the  winter.  I  have  found  them  at  Buzzard's  Roost  the  last 
of  January.  As  a  rule  they  winter  from  New  York  and  In- 
diana southward  to  northern  South  America.  They  breed  from 
Florida  and  the  Gulf  Coast  to  the  shores  of  the  Hudson  Bay. 
Pairing  time  is  from  February  to  June,  according  to  latitude. 
It  is  believed  that  they  remain  mated  for  life. 

In  the  United  States  nidification  begins  from  the  middle 
of  April  to  the  middle  of  May.  The  usual  nesting  site  is  in  a 
natural  or  artificial  hole  in  a  tree.  Frequently  they  are  found 
in  the  deserted  nesting  hole  of  a  woodpecker.  A  pair  of  them 
have  nested  at  Somerleaze  for  many  years  in  a  cavity  near  the 
top  of  a  very  high  sugar  maple  tree  and  this  has  afforded  me  a 
good  opportunity  to  study  their  habits.  From  three  to  seven 
eggs  constitute  a  clutch.  In  his  Life  Histories  of  North  Amer- 
ican Birds,  Major  Bendire  says:  "The  ground  color  of  these 
eggs  ranges  from  a  pure  clear  white  in  a  few  instances  to  pale 
buff  or  cream  color  in  the  majority  of  cases,  and  to  a  bright 
cinnamon  rufous  in  a  few  others.  They  are  spotted,  blotched, 
marbled  and  sprinkled  with  different  shades  of  walnut  brown, 
chestnut,  cinnamon  rufous  and  ochraceous  in  various  pat- 
terns." Incubation  lasts  about  three  weeks  and  both  birds  as- 
sist in  it.  A  watchful  care  is  kept  over  the  nest  and  young.  I 
have  noticed  that  during  this  time  they  permit  no  other  birds 
to  come  near  their  nesting  tree.  Once,  when  tramping,  I  dis- 


The  American  Sparrow  Hawk  37 

covered  one  of  their  nests  and  the  parent  birds  discovered  me. 
They  made  a  ferocious  attack  upon  me,  and  flew  around  me 
with  great  fierceness,  crying,  "killy,  killy,  killy,"  and  I  think 
they  would  have  "killed"  me  if  they  could  have  done  so. 

As  is  shown  in  the  illustration,  this  hawk  stands  in  a  very 
erect  position — more  so  than  any  other  bird  with  which  I  am 
acquainted.  Its  only  note  or  call,  so  far  as  I  am  advised,  is, 
"killy-killy-killy,"  and  this  is  uttered  when  it  is  in  flight.  At 
times  they  seem  to  become  much  excited  and  make  much  noise 
with  this  call.  Because  of  this  some  people  know  it  as  the 
killy  hawk ;  others  as  the  mouse  hawk  because  of  the 
great  number  of  mice  destroyed  by  them.  One  thing  is  sure, 
and  that  is,  that  it  ought  not  to  have  been  named  the  sparrow 
hawk,  for  the  reason  that  the  name  is  misleading  and  well  cal- 
culated to  create  a  prejudice  against  it.  As  has  been  well  sug- 
gested, it  would  have  been  better  to  have  named  it  the  grass- 
hopper hawk,  since  the  greater  portion  of  its  food  consists  of 
grasshoppers.  It  is  one  of  the  farmer's  best  friends  and  should 
be  protected  for  the  good  it  does. 

Dr.  A.  K.  Fisher  of  the  United  States  Department  of  Ag- 
riculture says  that  the  subject  of  the  food  of  the  sparrow  hawk 
is  one  of  great  interest,  and  considered  in  its  economic  bear- 
ings, is  one  that  should  be  carefully  studied.  He  says  that  it 
"is  almost  exclusively  insectiverous,  except  when  insect  food 
is  difficult  to  obtain.  In  localities  where  grasshoppers  and 
crickets  are  abundant,  these  hawks  congregate,  often  in  moder- 
ate-sized flocks,  and  gorge  themselves  continuously.  Rarely 
do  they  touch  any  other  food  until,  either  by  the  advancing 
season  or  other  natural  causes,  the  grasshopper  crop  is  so  less- 
ened that  their  hunger  cannot  be  appeased  without  undue  ex- 
ertion." He  adds  that  they  are  also  very  fond  of  other  destruc- 
tive forms  of  life  such  as  beetles,  spiders,  shrews,  mice  and 
snakes,  and  that  sometimes  they  catch  small  birds.  Prof.  King, 
who  examined  the  stomachs  of  seven  sparrow  hawks,  says: 
"Two  of  them  had  eaten  two  mice ;  four,  twenty-five  grasshop- 
pers ;  three,  twenty-five  crickets ;  one,  six  beetles ;  one,  five 
moths,  and  one,  two  hairy  caterpillars.  One  was  seen  to  take 
a  young  robin  from  the  nest,  and  one  to  capture  another  bird 
not  identified." 


38  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

The  flight  of  the  sparrow  hawk  is  short  and  irregular,  dart- 
ing here  and  there,  and  it  often  suspends  itself  in  midair  in  a 
hovering  attitude,  much  like  a  humming  bird  suspends  itself 
before  a  flower.  In  both  instances  the  bird  is  searching  for 
food.  I  think  it  may  be  correctly  said  that,  as  a  rule,  the 
sparrow  hawk  discovers  its  food  while  in  flight.  This  is  most 
certainly  true  of  the  pair  at  Somerleaze,  which  I  have  studied 
very  carefully.  The  tree  in  which  they  nest  is  in  a  small  field 
about  two  hundred  yards  to  the  east  of  the  cottage.  Rarely 
have  I  seen  them  launching  from  it  into  the  air  over  that  field 
and  pouncing  upon  their  prey,  but  often  I  have  seen  them  fly 
over  the  cottage  to  the  west  fields  and  there  hover  in  midair 
watching  for  their  prey  and  suddenly  dropping  upon  it.  On 
one  occasion,  when  on  my  way  to  the  railroad  station,  I  saw 
one  hover  over  a  meadow  for  several  minutes  and  then  sudden- 
ly and  abruptly  fly  to  another  field.  It  had  scarcely  commenced 
its  hovering,  .when  it  dropped  from  an  altitude  of  about  one 
hundred  feet  and  caught  a  field  mouse.  Most  certainly  they 
must  have  telescopic  eyes,  for  without  them  they  could  not  see 
grasshoppers  and  other  like  small  objects  from  such  great 
heights. 


30 


GREAT  HORNED  OWL. 

(Bubo  virginianus). 
?  Life-size 


COPYRIGHT    1900,  BV  *.   W.   MUMFORD,   CHICAGO 


CHAPTER  VII. 


February  5 — February  11. 

THE  GREAT  HORNED  OWL. 

Order — Raptores  Suborder — Striges 

Family — Bubonidse  Genus — Bubo 

Species — Bubo  virginianus 

Length — 18.00  to  25.00;  wing,  14.50  to  16.00;  tail,  8.25  to  9.00. 
Permanent  Resident. 

"In  the  hollow  tree,  in  the  gray  old  tower, 

The  spectre  owl  doth  dwell; 

Dull,  hated,  despised  in  the  sunshine  hour, 

But  at  dusk,  he's  abroad  and  well! 

Not  a  bird  of  the  forest  ere  mates  with  him; 

All  mock  him  outright  by  day; 
But  at  night  when  the  woods  grow  still  and  dim, 

The  boldest  will  shrink  away: 
O,  when  the  night  falls  and  roost  the  fowl, 
Then,  then,  is  the  reign  of  the  horned  owl." 

The  family  Bubonidse,  composed  of  the  owls,  has  in  it 
about  two  hundred  species,  found  in  different  parts  of  the 
world.  Ten  of  them  have  been  identified  in  the  Middle  States. 
They  are  distinguished  by  their  nocturnal  habits ;  their  strong 
ear-like  tufts  which  correspond  to  the  ears  of  quadrupeds ;  their 
large  heads ;  their  large,  round,  full  and  glaring  eyes,  set  widely 
apart  and  partially  encircled  in  a  disk  of  feathers ;  a  hooked  bill 
turned  downward  so  that  it  resembles  the  nose  of  the  human 
face ;  their  strong  talons,  and  their  erect  position.  They  all 
have  the  outer  toe  capable  of  turning  either  to  the  front  or 

39 


40  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

rear  on  the  perch,  and  this  enables  them  to  grasp  their  prey 
with  great  certainty.  They  are  birds  of  prey,  usually  are  night 
prowlers,  and  like  the  cat  surprise  their  victims  by  watchful- 
ness and  stealth.  In  this  they  are  much  assisted  by  their  plum- 
age which  is  singularly  soft  and  downy,  and  the  construction  of 
their  wing  feathers  of  which  Ernest  Ingersoll  says,  "the  stems 
and  delicate  horny  sprays  constituting  the  vanes  of  the  feathers 
are  not  rigid  and  firmly  hooked  together,  but  are  slender,  loose, 
and  flexible,  so  that  their  flight  is  noiseless.  There  is  no  swish 
or  whist  of  wings  as  they  pass,  yet  they  have  great  speed  and 
agility  in  the  air,  though  lacking  power  for  long  sustained  ef- 
fort wThich  is  not  required  in  their  manner  of  life."  Another 
interesting  fact  stated  by  Mr.  Ingersoll  is  that  "the  owls  not 
only  have  the  internal  part  of  the  ear  relatively  of  great  size, 
but  the  external  opening  is  ample,  and  so  developed  by  a  ridge 
of  skin  and  a  growth  of  enclosing  feathers  as  really  to  form  a 
conch  or  external  ear  not  elsewhere  to  be  seen  among  the 
birds." 

The  bill  of  the  adult  male  great  horned  owl  is  large,  black 
and  strong;  eyes  very  large  and  golden  yellow;  the  horns  are 
about  three  inches  long  and  very  broad,  the  feathers  compos- 
ing them  being  edged  with  bright  tawny;  face  rusty,  bounded 
on  each  side  with  black;  space  between  the  eyes  and  bill  whit- 
ish ;  upper  parts  finely  pencilled  with  dusky  on  a  tawny  whitish 
ground;  tail  rounded,  extending  about  an  inch  beyond  the 
tips  of  the  wings,  crossed  with  six  or  seven  bars  of  brown,  and 
variegated  or  marbled  with  brown  and  tawny ;  chin  pure  white, 
under  that  a  band  of  brown,  succeeded  by  another  one  of 
white ;  whole  lower  parts  elegantly  marked  with  numerous 
transverse  bars  of  dusky,  on  a  bright  tawny  ground,  thinly  in- 
terspersed with  white ;  vent  pale  yellow  ochre,  barred  with  nar- 
row lines  of  brown ;  legs  short,  heavy  and  well  covered  with 
feathers  of  a  pale  brown  color;  talons  very  strong,  and  of  a 
blue  black  color.  The  adult  female  is  larger  than  the  male, 
but  in  general  appearance  they  are  alike.  Except  the  great 
gray  owl,  they  are  the  largest  and  most  powerful  of  the  Amer- 
ican owls. 

They  are  residents  and  breed  throughout  most  of  their 
range,  which  extends  throughout  eastern  North  America, 


The  Great  Horned  Owl  4i 

northward  to  Labrador,  westward  to  the  Great  Plains  and 
southward  through  eastern  Mexico  to  Costa  Rica.  My  note- 
book shows  that  I  found  them  at  Buzzard's  Roost,  January  18, 
1903,  and  January  1,  1905.  I  was  out  there  and  the  gardener 
told  me  that  one  of  them  was  hooting  that  morning  near  the 
cottage  and  that  it  came  into  the  yard  quite  frequently,  as  he 
thought,  to  catch  rats.  The  dense  forest  there  makes  a  favorite 
residence  for  them.  Wilson  in  his  American  Ornithology 
tells  us  that  "along  the  mountainous  shores  of  the  Ohio,  and 
amidst  the  deep  forest  of  Indiana,  alone,  and  reposing  in  the 
woods,  this  ghastly  watchman  frequently  warned  me  of  the 
approach  of  morning,  and  amused  me  with  his  singular  ex- 
clamations ;  sometimes  sweeping  down  and  around  my  fire,  ut- 
tering a  loud  and  sudden  Waugh  O !  Waugh  O !  sufficient  to 
have  alarmed  a  whole  garrison." 

They  are  early  breeders.  Mating  begins  about  the  middle 
of  January  and  continues  throughout  the  month.  Throughout 
the  greater  part  of  their  range  the  laying  of  eggs  begins  in 
February  and  occasionally  in  the  latter  part  of  January.  A  fav- 
orite place  for  their  nest  is  in  the  hollow  of  a  tree.  At  Buzzard's 
Roost  a  pair  of  them  have  such  a  nest  near  the  cabins.  Very 
frequently,  however,  they  repair  and  use  the  abandoned  nests 
of  crows  and  hawks.  As  a  rule  they  lay  two  or  three  eggs — 
sometimes  as  many  as  five.  The  eggs  about  the  size  of  a  hen's 
egg,  are  white  in  color  and  round  in  shape.  Incubation  is  at- 
tended to  by  the  female  and  lasts  from  twenty-one  to  twenty- 
eight  days.  It  is  said  that  they  regard  each  other  with  a  devo- 
tion that  is  rarely  met  with  among  favored  creatures  and  that 
they  will  willingly  risk  not  only  their  liberty  but  their  lives  for 
their  young. 

"Nor  lovely  the  bird,  nor  his  ghastly  mate; 

They  are  each  unto  each  a  pride, — 
Thrice  fonder,  perhaps,  since  a  strange,  dark  fate 

Hath  rent  them  from  all  beside." 

These  owls  have  several  call  notes.  Some  of  which  are 
very  harsh  to  the  ear.  One  of  these  is  a  cat-like  squall  or 
cry ;  another  is  a  series  of  yelps,  similar  to  the  barking  of  a 
dog.  The  common  call,  however,  is  a  far-reaching  "to-hoot, 
to-hoot,  to-hoot,  to-hoo-ah." 


42  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

Some  years  ago  when  we  first  went  to  Somerleaze  to  spend 
our  summers,  I  constructed  a  rustic  seat  around  a  hop-horn- 
beam tree  which  stood  upon  the  front  lawn.  I  spent  many 
evenings  under  this  tree,  giving  attention  to  the  things  that 
were  in  flight  at  night.  Across  our  neighbor's  fields  to  the 
northwest  was  a  thickly  wooded  marsh  and  there  I  would  first 
hear  the  call  of  one  of  these  owls,  "to-hoot,  to-hoot,  to-hoo,  to- 
hoo-ah."  Gradually  it  would  come  nearer.  Presently  it  could 
be  heard  from  the  great  cup  or  burr  oak  just  west  of  the  farm 
house,  and  then  from  the  wood  lot  just  southeast  of  it.  In  the 
solemn  quiet  of  the  night  in  the  country  his  hoot  was  anything 
but  cheering.  Years  have  passed,  the  marsh  has  been  convert- 
ed into  a  cornfield,  the  hop-hornbeam,  not  used  to  the  open, 
died,  and  the  call  of  the  hoot  owl  is  seldom  heard  from  the 
porch  where  I  now  spend  my  summer  evenings  listening  to 
"the  insect  orchestra  shrilling  out  its  twilight  overture"  and 
the  whip-poor-wills  and  screech  owls.  The  dense  woods  at 
Buzzard's  Roost  is  a  favorite  place  for  these  owls,  and  quite 
frequently  one  of  them  alights  on  the  ridge  board  of  the  cot- 
tage at  night  and  favors  the  gardener  with  his  "to-hoot,  to- 
hoot,  to-hoo,  to-hoo-ah." 

These  birds  do  much  good  and  should  be  protected.  They 
are  great  destroyers  of  rodents,  such  as  gophers,  ground  squir- 
rels, rabbits,  muskrats,  house  rats  and  mice  and  the  larger 
moths,  beetles  and  grasshoppers.  What  they  eat  is  determined 
easily  because  of  the  fact  that  they  do  not  masticate  their  food 
but  swallow  it  whole  or  in  large  shreds.  In  the  process  of  di- 
gestion that  which  is  indigestible  is  regurgitated  in  pellets. 
Gilbert  White  of  Selborne,  an  English  clergyman  and  natural- 
ist of  the  eighteenth  century,  directed  the  attention  of  the  pub- 
lic to  this  fact.  Near  by  the  parish  house  stood  a  tree  with 
a  cavity  in  which  lived  a  pair  of  owls.  He  noticed  at  the  roots 
of  this  tree  a  large  quantity  of  pellets  which  had  been  regur- 
gitated by  the  owls.  He  made  a  careful  examination  of  them 
and  discovered  that  the  owls  had  destroyed  large  numbers  of 
mice  and  other  rodents.  Since  then  his  observations  have  been 
confirmed  by  many  scientists.  In  the  city  of  Washington  two 
hundred  pellets  were  taken  from  beneath  the  nest  of  an  owl 
and  examined  and  found  to  contain  454  skulls,  of  which  225 


The  Great  Horned  Owl  43 

were  meadow  mice,  2  pine  mice,  179  house  mice,  20  rats,  6 
jumping  mice,  20  shrews,  1  star-nosed  mole  and  1  English 
sparrow.  An  interesting  fact  in  this  connection  is  that  when- 
ever provender  is  plenty  these  owls  often  -content  themselves 
with  simply  eating  the  brains  of  their  victims.  Mr.  Charles 
Dury  records  that  the  remains  of  113  Norway  rats,  most  of 
them  with  their  heads  split  open  and  the  brains  removed,  were 
found  in  and  about  a  nest  of  barn  owls,  which  was  in  a  syca- 
more stub  near  a  farmer's  lawn. 

The  nestlings  of  these  owls  are  voracious  eaters  and  it 
keeps  their  fond  parents  busy  to  supply  them  with  food  and 
this  is  an  additional  reason  why  they  are  so  valuable ;  and 
what  is  true  of  them  in  this  regard  is  true  of  all  birds.  This 
fact  is  not  generally  appreciated.  The  number  of  broods  and 
young  vary  according  to  the  species  and  the  region  in  which 
they  live.  Many  species  average  from  two  to  three  broods. of 
three  to  five  young  every  season.  The  young,  from  the  time 
the  eggs  are  hatched  until  the  last  offspring  has  left  the  nest, 
demand  the  most  constant  and  untiring  industry  on  the  part  of 
the  parents.  Meals  are  very  frequent,  often  averaging  one 
every  two  minutes.  At  first  the  nestlings  consume  more  than 
their  own  weight  in  food  each  day,  and  make  daily  gain  in 
weight  of  twenty  to  fifty  per  cent.  At  this  time  they  appear 
to  consist  of  little  else  than  mouth  and  stomach  and  spend 
nearly  all  their  waking  moments  eating.  The  total  amount  of 
the  material  required  to  satisfy  their  appetites  is  astonishing, 
and  when  the  greater  portion  of  that  material  consists  of  in- 
jurious animal  life,  as  it  does  in  the  case  of  these  owls,  it  is 
readily  seen  why  they  are  so  valuable. 


41 


SCREECH  OWL. 

(Megascops  asio). 
About  %  Life-size- 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


February  12 — February  18. 

THE  SCREECH  OWL. 

Order — Raptores  Suborder — Striges 

Family — Bubonidae  Genus — Megascops 

Species — Megascops  asio 

Length — 6.50  to  10.00;  wing,  5.60  to  7.10;  tail,  3.00  to  3.70. 
Permanent  Resident. 

"The  night  owl  in  the  thicket  wails 

In  tones  of  melancholy, 
•     As  if  bemoaning  in  its  age 
Its  years  of  youthful  folly." 

Chapman  and  Reed  in  their  Color  Key  to  North  Ameri- 
can Birds  describe  thirteen  species  of  screech  owls.  Megas- 
cops asio  is  the  only  one  of  these  that  is  found  in  the  Middle 
West.  The  plumage  of  this  owl  is  dichromatic,  that  is,  it  has 
two  distinct  variations  of  color,  the  red  or  rufous  and  the  gray. 
This  peculiarity  does  not  depend  upon  sex,  age,  season  or  con- 
dition. Young  birds  with  both  phases  of  color  are  often  found 
in  the  same  nest,  and  sometimes  the  male  is  of  one 'color  and 
the  female  of  the  other,  and  vice  versa.  Those  with  the  red 
phase  are  rufous  above  and  streaked  with  shaft  lines  of  black. 
The  scapular  feathers  show  considerable  white ;  there  is  also 
more  or  less  white  in  some  individuals  above  the  eyes.  Un- 
derneath the  color  is  white  overlaid  with  rufous,  generally  in 
bars.  Those  of  the  gray  phase  have  a  brownish  gray  appear- 
ance above,  with  markings  of  black  and  white  almost  identical 
with  those  of  the  red  phase.  Underneath  they  are  gray  and 

45 


46  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

white  and  are  profusely  marked  with  black  shaft  lines  and  nar- 
row black  or  brown  bars.  The  wings  and  tail  in  both  phases 
are  barred.  The  seasons  bring  no  change  in  the  color  of  the 
plumage.  It  is  very  soft  and  fluffy.  The  ear  tufts  are  erectile 
and  about  an  inch  long.  The  legs  and  feet  are  feathered  near- 
ly to  the  ends  of  the  toes.  The  bill  is  of  a  brown  color  and  al- 
most hidden  by  feathers  and  bristles.  The  eyes  are  very  large 
with  an  iris  of  bright  yellow. 

The  range  of  this  owl  extends  throughout  temperate 
North  America,  east  of  the  one  hundredth  meridian  and  be- 
tween parallels  thirty-three  and  forty  degrees  of  north  latitude, 
and  they  breed  wherever  they  are  found.  They  are  known 
as  the  mottled  owl  because  of  their  mottled  appearance  and  the 
cat  owl  because  of  the  shape  of  the  head.  They  are  retiring 
and  unobstrusive  in  their  habits,  and  though  abundant,  are  sel- 
dom seen  during  the  greater  part  of  the  year.  Yet  it  is  the 
commonest  of  our  owls  and  the  one  with  which  we  are  most 
familiar.  Wilson,  the  American  ornithologist,  kept  one  of  them 
in  his  room  for  several  weeks,  and  says :  "Those  who  have 
seen  this  bird  in  the  day  can  form  but  an  imperfect  idea  of  its 
activity  and  even  sprightliness,  in  its  proper  season  of  exer- 
cise. Throughout  the  day  it  was  all  stillness  and  gravity,  its 
eyelids  half  shut,  its  neck  contracted  and  its  head  shrunk 
seemingly  into  the  body,  but  scarcely  was  the  sun  set  and 
twilight  began  to  approach,  when  its  eyes  became  full  and 
sparkling,  like  two  living  globes  of  fire ;  it  crouched  on  its 
perch,  reconnoitered  every  object  around  with  looks  of  eager 
fierceness ;  alighted  and  fed ;  stood  on  the  meat  with  clenched 
talons,  while  it  tore  it  in  morsels  with  its  bill ;  flew  round  the 
room  with  the  silence  of  thought,  and  perching  moaned  out  its 
melancholy  notes,  with  many  lively  gesticulations,  not  at  all 
accordant  with  the  pitiful  tone  of  its  ditty,  which  reminded  one 
of  the  shivering  meanings  of  a  half-frozen  puppy." 

Mating  of  these  owls  begins  in  the  early  part  of  March 
and  it  is  thought  that  they  mate  for  life.  It  is  said  that  it  is 
interesting  to  watch  the  love-making  of  a  pair  of  owls  on  a 
moonlight  night,  as  they  sit  together  on  the  coping  of  an  out- 
building or  the  horizontal  limb  of  some  giant  of  the  forest. 
The  lady  owl  looks  the  picture  of  demure  coyness,  as  if  a  little 


The  Screech  Owl  47 

excited  inwardly.  But  the  male  owl  is  very  much  in  earnest; 
for  a  moment  or  two  he  puffs  out  his  feathers,  bows  and  utters 
a  soft  scream,  followed  by  a  modified  hiss  that  is  full  of  ten- 
der meaning,  and  then  he  nudges  her  with  his  wings.  She 
opens  her  eyes  very  wide  and  gives  him  a  sidelong  glance  that 
may  be  a  hint,  for,  horrible  to  relate,  from  the  depths  of  his 
interior  he  instantly  brings  up  a  half-digested  mou.se;  and, 
although  she  is  as  full  of  similar  rodents  and  beetles  as  she 
can  comfortably  hold,  she  opens  her  mouth  and  accepts  the 
fragrant  gift  with  a  murmur  of  satisfaction  that  speaks  vol- 
umes of  love  and  thanks.  When  the  dainty  morsel  has  been 
disposed  of  they  caress  each  other  tenderly  for  a  moment  or 
two,  then  sit  close  together,  while  the  process  of  assimilation 
is  perfected,  and  then  they  simultaneously  fly  away  into  the 
moonlight  on  noiseless  wing  in  search  of  further  prey. 

With  these  owls  nidification  begins  between  the  middle  of 
April  and  the  first  of  May.  Their  favorite  places  for  nesting 
are  the  cavities  of  trees,  old  squirrel  nests  and  outbuildings. 
Strictly  speaking,  they  do  not  build  nests.  If  the  nest  is  in  a 
cavity,  the  eggs  are  laid  in  the  bottom  of  it  on  such  rubbish 
as  naturally  accumulates  therein.  The  eggs,  four  or  five  of 
which  constitute  a  clutch,  are  deposited  every  two  or  three 
days,  and  are  pure  white  in  color,  usually  oval  or  nearly  globu- 
lar in  shape,  and  are  moderately  glossy.  Incubation  lasts  about 
three  weeks.  Mr.  Lynds  Jones  says  that  "Both  parents  are 
generally  found  near  the  nest,  and  not  infrequently  sitting  on 
the  eggs  at  the  same  time.  In  a  number  of  instances  I  have 
taken  the  two  from  well  incubated  eggs,  but  have  never  flushed 
both  of  them  from  a  fresh  set.  Between  the  interval  when 
the  first  egg  is  laid  and  the  set  is  completed,  the  male  may  be 
found=  in  a  hollow  tree  and  cannot  be  flushed,  while  the  female 
watches  the  nest  and  flushes  easily.  When  incubation  begins 
the  male  will  flush  readily  for  a  time,  the  female,  however,  re- 
maining. Later  both  birds  must  be  dislodged  by  force.  If  the 
cavity  is  large  enough  to.  admit  of  it,  both  birds  will  cover 
the  eggs ;  if,  however,  it  is  small,  the  female  covers  them  and 
the  male  either  wedges  himself  down  by  her  side  or  lies  on 
top  of  her,  and  sometimes  finds  a  lodgment  somewhere  higher 
up  in  the  hole,  which,  however,  is  rarely  the  case." 


48  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

These  owls  are  abundant  at  Buzzard's  Roost.  The  gar- 
dener tells  me  that  they  have  entered  through  the  open  win- 
dow into  the  upper  story  of  the  cottage  in  search  of  mice,  and 
that  frequently  he  has  found  them  in  the  barn.  A  pair  of  them 
have  their  nest  in  the  cavity  of  a  sycamore  on  the  bank  of  Fall 
Creek  directly  in  front  of  the  cottage,  and  another  in  a  beech 
snag  near  the  east  line  of  the  woodland.  At  Somerleaze  they 
come  with  their  young  to  the  lawns  in  July.  From  then  until 
the  snow  flies  we  hear  them  almost  every  morning  and  even- 
ing. One  often  comes  to  the  elm  which  branches  over  our  back 
porch,  and  within  twenty  feet  of  where  we  sleep,  makes  his 
"tremulous,  wailing  whistle."  Sometimes  it  is  like  the  cry  of 
a  child  and  very  distressing,  but  I  have  never  heard  them 
screech.  In  an  article  in  the  Indianapolis  News,  July  20, 
1901,  I  made  mention  of  this  fact,  and  this  inspired  my  friend, 
Mr.  Wm.  A.  Wood,  to  write : 

"Thou  art  an  ill  named  bird,  my  lady  owl, 
Who  sittest  before  me  on  the  lonely  bough: 
Men  had  less  reason  e'er  to  wince  or  scowl 
Had  thy  sex  all  such  mellow  tones  as  thou. 

"The  shimmering  light  from  off  the  winter  moon 

Falls  rich  and  soft  upon  the  quiet  wood, 

As  rich  and  soft  as  thy  fond,  maternal  croon 

That  warms  with  sound  this  snow  clad  neighborhood. 

"The  birds  that  nest  in  summer  mid  these  trees, 
At  frost  to  tropic  climes  and  cheer  they  go; 
But  thou  dost  stay  in  spite  of  chilling  breeze, 
To  comfort  with  thy  tender  tremolo." 

For  a  long  time  it  was  believed  that  the  owls  could  not 
see  well  in  the  daytime.  But  later  investigations  have  proved 
that  they  see  as  well  as  we  do  at  that  time  and  better  in 
the  twilight.  The  query,  then,  is,  why  are  they  not  seen  in 
the  daytime?  There  are  two  answers  to  this.  The  first  is, 
that  they  are  despised  by  all  of  the  other  bird  families.  What- 
ever differences  they  may  have  among  themselves,  the  various 
families  of  birds  regard  the  owls  as  outlaws,  and  birds  of  one 
family  will  help  those  of  another  in  fighting  their  common 
enemy.  If  another  bird  espies  one  of  them,  it  immediately 


The  Screech  Owl  49 

gives  the  alarm  and  all  the  other  birds  of  the  neighborhood 
congregate  at  once  and  make  a  common  attack  upon  it.  This 
is  especially  true  of  the  blue  jays  and  robins.  In  the  second 
place,  it  is  a  wise  provision  of  nature  that  for  all  times  there 
should  be  birds  of  some  kind  on  guard  to  keep  in  abeyance  "its 
destructive  forces  and  so  we  have  the  owls,  who,  with  the 
special  sight  that  is  given  them,  can  be  on  guard  at  night  to 
destroy  the  injurious  rodents,  insects  and  moths  that  are  out 
at  that  time  and  ready  to  do  mischief." 

Scientific  investigations  which  have  been  made  show  that 
these  owls  are  of  great  value  to  the  farmer  and  orchardist. 
Dr.  A.  K.  Fisher,  in  his  report  upon  the  Hawks  and  Owls 
from  the  Standpoint  of  the  Farmer,  says :  "Of  twenty-five 
stomachs  examined  of  the  screech  owl,  birds  were  found  in 
about  15  per  cent.  Fully  one-third  of  these  consisted  of  Eng- 
lish sparrows,  and  a  large  proportion  of  the  rest  were  ground- 
dwelling  sparrows,  which  feed  largely  on  seeds  and  are  of  lit- 
tle economic  importance.  Among  insects,  grasshoppers, 
crickets,  beetles  and  cutworms  are  most  often  eaten.  As 
many  as  fifty  grasshoppers  have  been  found  in  one  stomach, 
eighteen  May  beetles  in  another,  and  thirteen  cutworms  in  a 
third.  During  the  warmer  parts  of  the  year  it  is  exceptional 
to  find  a  stomach  not  well  filled  with  insect  remains.  Meadow 
mice,  white-footed  mice  and  house  mice  are  the  mammals 
most  often  taken,  while  chipmunks,  wood  rats,  flying  squirrels 
and  moles  are  less  frequently  found.  The  screech  owl  is  fond 
of  fish  and  it  apparently  catches  many,  especially  in  winter. 
At  this  time  it  watches  near  the  breathing  holes  in  the  ice,  and 
seizes  the  luckless  fish  which  comes  to  the  surface.*  *  * 
As  nearly  three-fourths  of  the  owl's  food  consists  of  injurious 
mammals  and  insects,  and  only  about  one-seventh  of  birds  (a 
large  proportion  of  which  are  destructive  English  sparrows), 
there  is  no  question  that  this  little  owl  should  be  carefully 
protected." 


CHAPTER  IX. 


February  19 — February  25. 

THE  TURKEY  VULTURE. 

Order — Raptores  Suborder — Sarcorhamphi 

Family — Cathartidse  Genus — Cathartes 

Species — Cathartes  aura 

Length — 26.00  to  32.00;  wing,  20.00  to  23.00;  tail,  n.oo  to  12.00. 
Migration — North,  February ;  south,  October. 

"Among  the  crags,  in  cavernous  deep, 

The  vulture  rears  his  brood; 
Far  reaching  in  his  vision's  sweep 

O'er  valley,  plain  and  wood, 
And  wheresoe'er  the  quarry  lies, 

It  cannot  'scape  his  peering  eyes. 
The  traveler  from  the  plain  below, 

Sees  first  a  speck  upon  the  sky — 
Then  poised  on  sweeping  wings  of  woe, 

A  vulture,  bat-like,  passes  by." 

The  family  Cathartidse,  composed  of  the  American  vul- 
tures, has  in  it  eight  species.  Three  of  these,  the  California, 
turkey  and  black  vulture,  are  found  in  the  United  States.  The 
last  two  of  these  have  been  identified  in  the  Middle  West.  The 
turkey  vulture  is  commonly  called  the  turkey  buzzard. 
Technically  speaking,  this  is  incorrect,  since  the  buzzard  is  a 
member  of  the  family  falconidse  and  not  of  the  family  cathar- 
tidae.  There  is  a  marked  difference  between  these  families. 
The  falcons  have  a  short  and  powerful  beak,  the  upper  mandible 


52  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

being  like  a  hook,  and  well  fitted  for  tearing  into  shreds  the 
fresh  flesh  upon  which  they  live,  so  that  it  can  easily  be  de- 
voured. They  also  have  strong  grasping  feet  with  which  they 
can  catch  and  hold  their  food  while  it  is  being  torn  into  shreds. 
The  beak  of  the  vulture  is  more  elongated  and  not  so  strong. 
Their  feet  are  adapted  to  walking  rather  than  grasping,  since 
they  do  not  catch  and  hold  their  food  while  they  devour  it. 
This  vulture  gets  its  distinguishing  name  turkey,  from  its 
fancied  resemblance  to  the  wild  turkey. 

The  beak  of  the  turkey  vulture  is  about  two  and  a  half 
inches  long,  and  is  of  a  white  color;  nostrils  wide  with  open- 
ing through  the  beak;  eyes  dark  in  some  specimens  and  in 
others  reddish-hazel ;  head  and  neck  bare,  red  and  carruncu- 
lated  almost  to  the  breast  bone ;  the  naked  skin  of  the  lower 
neck  is  not  discernable  without  removing  the  plumage  which 
arches  over  it;  the  plumage  of  the  upper  part  of  the  body  is  a 
lustrous  black,  more  or  less  tinged  with  brown ;  the  lower 
parts,  lining  of  the  wings,  rump  and  tail  coverts,  sooty  brown 
with  the  feathers  of  the  belly  and  vent  hairy;  the  wings  are 
long  and  pointed  with  the  ends  of  the  primaries  reaching  to  the 
end  of  the  tail ;  the  tail  is  rounded  and  brownish  like  the 
wings ;  tarsus  without  feathers,  covered  with  fine  scales  and 
whitish ;  the  feet  are  well  adapted  to  walking  and  steadying 
the  bird  on  a  large  carcass ;  the  toes  are  united  next  to  the  feet 
by  a  small  membrane,  the  hind  one  projects  from  the  foot 
higher  than  the  others,  the  middle  one  is  very  long  and  all  of 
them  are  tipped  with  short  claws.  In  appearance  the  sexes 
are  alike.  The  young  are  covered  with  down  of  a  greenish- 
white  color. 

The  range  of  the  turkey  vulture  extends  north  from  the 
Falkland  Islands  and  Patagonia  to  Saskatchewan  and  British 
Columbia  and  includes  the  greater  portion  of  the  United 
States.  It  is  very  common  throughout  the  south,  gradually 
becoming  rarer  as  it  advances  northward.  East  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains  it  is  a  resident  throughout  the  year  from  about 
latitude  46  degrees,  and  they  breed  as  far  north  as  latitude  56 
degrees.  In  the  Middle  West  they  generally  begin  to  appear 
in  February  or  early  in  March.  A  pair  of  them  have  been  seen 
at  Buzzard's  Roost  as  early  as  the  first  week  in  January.  They 


53 


mate  soon  after  their  arrival  from  the  South  and  nesting  be- 
gins about  the  first  of  April. 

They  make  no  attempt  at  making  a  nest,  but  lay  their 
eggs  in  the  hollow  of  a  tree,  stump  or  log,  or  on  a  rock  ledge 
or  on  the  ground.  The  vulture  from  which  the  illustration  ac- 
companying this  chapter  was  taken  was  obtained  between  the 
Brazos  River  and  Matagorda  Bay.  It  was  found  nesting  on 
the  ground  in  an  open  space  beneath  a  heavy  growth  of 
bushes.  The  old  bird,  when  approached,  did  not  attempt  to 
leave  the  nest,  and  to  protect  her  young  from  harm  promptly 
disgorged  the  putrid  contents  of  her  stomach  upon  her  captor, 
and  they  were  so  offensive  that  he  had  to  close  his  nostrils 
with  one  hand  while  he  reached  for  the  young  bird  with  the 
other.  This  is  their  only  means  of  defense.  From  one  to  three 
dull  white  eggs  constitute  a  clutch.  They  are  irregularly 
blotched,  smeared  and  spotted  with  various  shades  of  brown. 
Both  birds  take  part  in  the  incubation,  each  feeding  the  other 
and  the  young  with  the  disgorged  contents  of  the  stomach. 
Incubation  lasts  about  thirty  days,  and  only  one  brood  is 
reared  in  a  season.  The  nest  becomes  extremely  filthy  and 
fetid.  A  pair  of  them  nested  in  a  stump  near  the  summer  home 
of  my  deceased  friend,  Dr.  Daniel  Thompson,  who  told  me 
that  the  stench  from  the  nest  could  be  detected  for  several 
yards  away  from  the  stump. 

The  young  hiss  like  a  goose  when  disturbed.  Dr.  Henry 
Moore  tells  me  that  while  he  and  a  friend  were  exploring  a 
small  stream  which  runs  through  a  gorge  at  the  Shades  of 
Death  in  Montgomery  county,  Indiana,  they  came  to  a  place 
where  there  was  a  fall  of  about  five  feet.  He  jumped  down  to 
a  rock  ledge,  but  his  friend  hesitated.  Upon  alighting  he 
heard  a  hissing  noise  and  thought  it  came  from  a  snake.  Fear- 
ing to  move,  he  sent  his  companion  around  the  hill  so  that  he 
might,  if  possible,  discover  what  it  was  that  was  hissing.  His 
companion  readily  discovered  the  cause  and  said  to  the  doc- 
tor, "Look  behind  you  under  the  ledge."  He  did,  and  saw  two 
young  vultures  there  which  were  about  half  grown.  He  tells  me 
that  great  numbers  of  these  birds  nest  in  that  locality  upon 
rock  ledges  and  that  they  have  a  rookery  there.  Having  never 
heard  a  vulture  make  a  noise  or  call  of  any  kind,  I  asked  if  he 


54  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

had,  and  he  answered  that  save  the  hissing  of  the  young,  the 
only  noise  that  he  had  ever  heard  was  a  kind  of  grunt  made  by 
the  adult  birds  when  they  alight.  Professor  John  Collett,  in 
his  Geological  Survey  of  Indiana  for  1875,  writes  interestingly 
about  the  weird  beauty  of  the  Shades  of  Death  and  its  buz- 
zard rookery.  In  closing  his  sketch  he  says :  "At  the  'rookery' 
all  the  buzzards  living  within  ten  or  fifteen  miles  meet  each 
summer  evening  for  information,  converse  and  mutual  assist- 
ance. The  fact  is  mentioned  as  an  instance  of  the  social  in- 
stinct of  the  bird." 

The  food  of  the  turkey  vulture  consists  of  carrion  and 
this  makes  of  it  a  filthy  bird  and  accounts  for  its  bare  head 
and  neck.  In  the  South  they  are  very  numerous  and  in  sev- 
eral of  the  States  are  protected  because  of  the  good  they  do 
as  scavengers,  and  they  become  quite  tame.  Whether  they 
discover  their  food  by  sight  or  by  scent  has  been  a  theme  for 
much  controversy.  Audubon  made  experiments  for  the  pur- 
pose of  answering  the  question.  He  says:  "I  procured  a  skin 
of  our  common  deer,  entire  to  the  hoofs  and  stuffed  it  care- 
fully with  dried  grass  until  filled  rather  above  the  natural  size 
— suffered  the  whole  to  become  perfectly  dry  and  as  hard  as 
leather — took  it  to  the  middle  of  a  large  open  field,  and  laid  it 
down  upon  its  back  with  the  legs  up  and  apart,  as  if  the  ani- 
mal were  dead  and  putrid.  I  then  retired  a  few  hundred  yards 
and  in  the  lapse  of  some  minutes  a  vulture  coursing  around 
the  field,  tolerably  high,  espied  the  skin,  sailed  directly  toward 
it,  and  alighted  within  a  few  yards  of  it.  I  ran  immediately 
covered  by  a  large  tree,  until  within  about  forty  yards,  and 
from  that  place  could  spy  the  bird  with  ease.  He  approached 
the  skin,  looked  at  it  without  apparent  suspicion,  raised  his  tail 
and  avoided  itself  freely  (as  you  well  know  all  birds  of  prey  in 
a  wild  state  generally  do  before  feeding),  then  approaching  the 
eyes,  that  were  here  solid  globes  of  Hard,  dried  and  painted 
clay,  attacked  first  one  and  then  the  other,  with,  however,  no 
further  advantage  than  that  of  disarranging  them.  This  part 
was  abandoned ;  the  bird  walked  to  the  other  extremity  of  the 
pretended  animal,  and  there,  with  much  exertion,  tore  the 
stitches  apart,  until  much  fodder  and  hay  were  pulled  out; 
but  no  flesh  could  the  bird  find  or  smell ;  he  was  intent  on 


The  Turkey  Vulture  55 

finding  some  where  none  existed,  and,  after  reiterated  efforts, 
all  useless,  he  took  flight,  coursed  around  the  field,  when,  sud- 
denly turning  and  falling,  I  saw  him  kill  a  small  garter  snake 
and  swallow  it  in  an  instant.  The  vulture  rose  again,  sailed 
about  and  passed  several  times  quite  low  over  the  stuffed  deer 
skin,  as  if  loath  to  abandon  so  good  looking  a  prey.  Judge  of 
my  feelings  when  I  plainly  saw  that  the  vulture,  which  could 
not  discover  through  its  extraordinary  sense  of  smell  that  no 
flesh,  either  fresh  or  putrid,  existed  about  that  skin,  could  at 
a  glance  see  a  snake  scarcely  as  large  as  a  man's  finger,  alive, 
and  destitute  of  odor,  hundreds  of  yards  distant.  I  concluded 
that,  at  all  events,  his  ocular  powers  were  much  better  than 
his  sense  of  smell."  And  this,  I  think,  is  the  more  generally 
accepted  view.  A  strong  argument  in  favor  of  it  is  the  fact 
that  often  the  vultures  discover  a  carcass  so  soon  after  it  is 
dead — too  soon  for  it  to  give  off  any  stench.  It  is  a  known 
fact  that,  directly  a  camel  or  other  beast  of  burden  drops  dead, 
as  a  caravan  to  which  it  belongs  is  making  its  way  across  the 
desert,  vultures  of  one  sort  or  another  appear,  often  in  con- 
siderable numbers,  though  none  had  before  been  observed  by 
the  ordinary  traveler,  and  speedily  devour  the  carcass  over 
which  they  are  gathered  together. 

At  Buzzard's  Roost  these  vultures  nest  in  the  snag  of  a 
tree,  and  as  of  old,  they  roost  in  the  midst  of  the  woods — not 
on  the  great  old  tulip  tree — but  on  others  nearby  where  that 
stood.  Since  I  have  known  the  place,  I  have  seldom  gone  there 
during  the  season  for  them,  but  that  I  have  found  them  sail- 
ing in  midair  over  the  place.  Again  and  again  have  I  watched 
them  soaring  to  an  immense  height,  and  then  sailing  in  great 
circles  without  the  flap  of  a  wing,  and  seemingly  without  any 
effort  of  the  body,  and  in  amazement  I  have  wondered  how 
it  was  done.  To  me  this  is  one  of  the  most  puzzling  and  most 
beautiful  sights  in  nature.  One  time  when  I  was  out  there  a 
heavy  thunder  storm  passed  over  the  place.  After  it  had 
passed,  it  cleared  away  and  the  sun  shone  most  beautifully. 
Looking  to  the  west  from  the  cottage,  I  noticed  a  large  dark 
object  on  the  projecting  limb  of  a  tree.  A  more  careful  obser- 
vation developed  the  fact  that  it  was  a  turkey  vulture  with 
half  outstretched  wings.  I  concluded  that  he  was  drying  him- 


56  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

self — at  any  rate  he  maintained  the  position  unchanged  for  a 
long  time,  and  then  sailed  away.  Since  then  I  have  learned 
that  such  is  their  habit.  Wilson  says  "they  may  be  seen  in  a 
summer's  morning,  spreading  out  their  wings  to  the  rising 
sun,  and  remaining  in  that  posture  for  a  considerable  time." 
He  thinks  that  this  habit  "is  attended  with  the  same  exhilarat- 
ing effect  that  an  exposure  to  the  air  of  the  morning  has  on  the 
frame  of  one  just  risen  from  repose." 


CHAPTER  X. 


February  26 — March  4. 

THE  LOGGERHEAD  SHRIKE. 

Order — Passeres  Suborder — Oscines 

Family — Laniidae  Genus — Lanius 

Species — Lanius  ludovicianus 

Length— 8.50  to  9.50;  wing,  3.75  to  4.10;  tail,  3.65  to  4.25. 
Migration — North,  March ;  south,  November. 

The  family  Laniidse  is  composed  of  the  shrikes  of  which 
there  are  about  two  hundred  species.  Most  of  these  are  con- 
fined to  the  Old  World.  In  North  America  we  have  only  two 
species,  namely,  the  northern  shrike,  lanius  borealis,  and  the 
loggerhead  shrike,  lanius  ludovicianus.  They  are  medium- 
sized  rapacious  birds  with  wandering  habits.  They  have 
hooked  or  hawk-like  bills  and  remarkable  eyesight.  Their 
call  notes  are  harsh  and  unmusical.  The  northern,  as  its 
name  indicates,  is  a  bird  of  the  far  north,  and  the  loggerhead 
is  a  bird  of  the  south.  When  the  first  comes  to  the  Middle 
West  about  the  first  of  November,  the  second  will  have  gone 
to  the  south,  and  in  March  when  the  first  is  leaving  for  the 
far  north,  the  other  will  be  returning  from  the  south.  As  has 
been  well  said,  "In  case  of  species  so  nearly  identical  as  the 
northern  and  loggerhead  shrike,  it  would  be  interesting  to 
know  wherein  consists  that  subtle  temperamental  distinction 
that  drives  them  to  such  diverse  latitudes  north  and  south." 

57 


58  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

In  appearance  both  birds  are  much  alike — so  much  so  that  a 
picture  illustrating  one  might  be  used  to  illustrate  the  other. 
Indeed,  the  illustration  accompanying  this  chapter  has  been 
used  in  one  of  our  best  bird  books  to  illustrate  the  chapter  on 
the  northern  shrike.  The  loggerhead,  however,  differs  from 
the  northern  in  size,  being  at  least  one  inch  shorter,  and  in 
color,  being  much  darker  on  the  upper  parts,  and  in  having 
the  frontlet  black. 

The  bill  of  the  loggerhead  shrike  is  black,  moderately 
long,  with  culmen  curved  and  the  tip  hooked ;  lores  black,  con- 
nected by  narrow  black  line  on  the  forehead  at  the  base  of  the 
bill;  ear  coverts,  black;  iris,  hazel;  upper  parts,  including  les- 
ser coverts,  bluish-gray;  wings  black,  with  secondaries  and 
short  primaries  tipped  with  white  and  white  patch  at  the  base 
of  the  primaries ;  tail  black,  the  outer  web  of  the  outside 
feathers,  and  the  tips  of  others,  white ;  under  parts,  white ; 
feet  black,  small  and  sparrow-like.  In  appearance  the  sexes 
are  alike,  but  the  female  is  the  smallest  of  the  two.  Both  are 
beautiful  birds. 

The  range  of  the  loggerhead  shrike  extends  from  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico  north  on  the  Atlantic  coast  to  New  Jersey,  and 
in  the  interior  to  the  Great  Lakes,  and  wrest  to  the  Great 
Plains.  It  winters  south  of  southern  Indiana  and  Illinois  and 
Missouri.  Nidification  begins  in  April.  I  find  that  some  of 
the  books  say  that  the  nest  is  usually  found  on  the  outer  limbs 
of  trees,  often  from  fifteen  to  thirty  feet  from  the  ground,  and 
that  a  thorn  tree  is  the  favorite  place  for  it.  The  one  in  the 
illustration  was  taken  under  the  direction  of  Mr.  F.  M.  Wood- 
ruff about  fourteen  miles  from  Chicago.  It  was  found  in  the 
corner  of  an  old  osage  orange  hedge  about  eight  feet  from  the 
ground.  In  describing  how  the  photograph  was  obtained  he 
says :  "It  took  considerable  time  and  patience  to  build  up  a 
platform  of  fence  boards  and  old  boxes  to  enable  the  photog- 
rapher to  do  his  work.  The  half-eaten  body  of  a  young  garter 
snake  was  found  about  midway  between  the  upper  surface  of 
the  nest  and  the  limb  above,  where  it  had  been  hung  for  fu- 
ture use."  I  have  most  frequently  found  them  in  thorn  bushes 
in  the  fence  corners.  The  nest  is  a  rough,  shabby  affair,  gen- 
erally composed  of  twigs,  strips  of  bark,  fine  roots  and  grass, 


The  Loggerhead  Shrike  59 

and  is  lined  with  grass  and  feathers.  The  eggs,  three  to  six  in 
number,  are  a  dull  white,  thickly  spotted,  chiefly  at  the  large 
end,  with  brown  and  lilac.  The  male  takes  no  part  in  incuba- 
tion, but  during  the  time  is  very  attentive  to  the  female  and 
carries  much  food  to  her.  Incubation  lasts  about  twenty  days. 
Both  the  male  and  female  are  much  devoted  to  their  young  and 
are  active  in  feeding  them.  The  young  leave  the  nest  in 
twelve  to  fifteen  days.  Then  the  entire  family  may  be  seen 
having  a  good  time  feeding  together — a  pretty  sight  to  wit- 
ness. 

In  its  habits  of  life  the  loggerhead  shrike  is  a  solitary 
bird.  Year  after  year  a  pair  of  them  may  be  found  in  the  same 
locality.  In  my  tramps  I  always  know  where  to  find  a  pair 
of  them,  and  except  two  times  I  have  never  seen  more  than 
a  pair  of  them  at  the  same  time.  So  far  as  I  have  observed, 
they  are  most  frequently  found  along  fence  rows  and  not  in- 
frequently by  the  roadside,  especially  if  the  fence  be  an  old  rail 
one  with  its  corners  grown  up  in  bushes  and  briars.  There 
they  will  fly  ahead  of  the  traveler  from  panel  to  panel  for 
some  distance,  and  then,  like  the  mourning  dove,  make  a  cir- 
cuit and  fly  back  to  the  starting  point.  For  several  years  I 
have  observed  a  pair  of  them  doing  this  along  the  highway 
leading  from  the  interurban  station  to  Buzzard's  Roost,  and 
the  highway  leading  from  the  railway  station  to  Somerleaze. 
In  flight  they  move  along  evenly,  close  to  the  ground,  with 
heads  up  and  with  a  very  quick  flapping  of  the  wings. 

I  find  that  bird  writers,  as  a  rule,  say  that  this  shrike  has 
not  the  gift  of  song,  and  this  accords  with  my  observations, 
and  I  have  watched  them  carefully.  But  Mrs.  Olive  Thorne 
Miller,  one  of  our  most  careful  investigators  of  bird  life,  in 
giving  an  account  of  one  that  she  had  watched  and  was  study- 
ing, says :  "In  a  few  moments,  when  I  had  become  quiet,  he 
went  to  the  nest,  and  sitting  there  on  the  edge,  hidden  from 
my  view,  he  condescended  to  sing,  a  low,  sweet  song,  truly 
musical,  though  simple  in  construction,  being  merely  a  single 
clear  note  followed  by  a  trill  several  tones  higher.  After  de- 
livering this  attractive  little  aria  a  dozen  or  more  times,  he 
flew  out  of  the  tree  and  over  my  head,  and  sang  no  more."  It 
is  conceded,  however,  that  the  northern  shrike  does  sing,  and 


60  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

of  this  fact  I  can  bear  witness.  I  shall  not  forget  when  I  first 
heard  one  of  them  sing,  and  his  song  was  a  delightful  one.  It 
was  in  March.  I  was  on  my  way  to  Buzzard's  Roost  for  an 
outing.  Upon  alighting  from  the  interurban  car,  to  my  sur- 
prise and  pleasure,  I  heard  the  warbling  notes  of  a  bird.  I 
looked  about  me  to  ascertain  whence  it  came,  and  in  the  top- 
most branch  of  a  large  pear  tree  which  stood  nearby  was  a 
northern  shrike,  and  how  happy  he  seemed  to  be.  I  fear  he 
was  recounting  in  song  all  the  death  and  destruction  he  had 
caused  the  past  winter,  and  rejoicing  in  the  fact  that  he  soon 
was  to  be  off  to  other  fields  of  carnage. 

I  have  just  accused  the  northern  shrike  of  being  a  bird  of 
carnage,  and  of  this  there  can  be  no  doubt,  for  I  have  been  an 
eye  witness  to  the  fact.  But  is  the  same  true  of  the  logger- 
head shrike?  From  my  own  observations  I  can  not  affirm  that  it 
is.  In  almost  all  of  the  books  on  birds  I  find  it  recorded  that 
the  shrikes,  without  •'distinction,  have  the  strange  habit  of 
catching  large  insects,  small  birds  and  mammals  and  impaling 
them  upon  thorns,  wire  barbs  and  other  projecting  points,  and 
in  doing  so  that  they  catch  and  impale  many  more  than  they 
use.  In  other  words,  that  they  do  it  malevolently — and  this 
gives  them  their  name  of  Butcher  Bird.  Mrs.  Miller,  how- 
ever, after  devoting  a  good  portion  of  one  summer  to  making 
observations  of  them,  both  in  the  thorn  tree  and  on  a  barbed 
wire  fence,  says,  "In  fact,  I  was  never  able  to  find  the  smallest 
evidence  that  the  bird  ever  does  impale  anything,  and  the  St. 
Albans  ornithologist  adds  his  testimony  that  he  has  often 
examined  the  haunts  of  this  bird,  but  has  never  found  anything 
impaled.  And  a  correspondent  in  Vermont  writes  me  that 
he  has  watched  the  shrike  for  twenty  years  on  purpose  to  see 
this  performance,  and  in  all  that  time,  he  saw  but  three  in- 
stances, one  being  a  field  mouse,  and  the  other  two  English 
sparrows." 

There  may  be  instances  where  the  loggerhead  shrike 
does  do  this,  but  I  am  of  the  opinion  that  they  are  exceptional. 
A  friend  of  mine  told  me  of  an  instance  which  confirms  the 
fact  that  they  destroy  many  field  mice,  ami  probably  the 
fact  that  they  impale  them.  He  and  his  father  were  shucking 
corn  out  of  the  shock.  Near  by  was  an  osage  orange  hedge 


The  Loggerhead  Shrike  61 

and  a  large  wild  cherry  tree.  From  the  tree,  a  shrike  flew 
with  unerring  certainty  to  where  they  were  shucking,  eleven 
times  and  each  time  caught  and  carried  away  a  mouse.  My 
friend,  Walter  Campbell,  a  colored  man,  who  formerly  lived  in 
the  south  tells  me  that  the  colored  people  down  there  calls  the 
shrike  the  Mouse  Hawk.  And  this  confirms  Wilson,  the 
American  ornithologist,  when  he  says  it  "inhabits  the  rice 
plantations  of  Carolina  and  Georgia,  where  it  is  protected  for 
its  usefulness  in  destroying  mice."  He  adds,  "It  sits  for 
hours  together,  on  the  fence,  beside  the  stacks  of  rice,  watch- 
ing like  a  cat ;  and  as  soon  as  it  perceives  a  mouse  darts 
on  it  like  a  hawk."  It  is  with  us  when  there  is  an  abundance 
of  grasshoppers,  beetles  and  other  large  insects  and  it  destroys 
many  of  these.  It  may  be  regarded  as  a  very  useful  bird  be- 
cause of  the  great  quantities  of  these  which  it  destroys. 


17 


KINGFISHER. 

(Ceryle  alcyon). 

|  Life-size. 


CHAPTER  XL 


March  5 — March  11. 

THE  BELTED  KINGFISHER. 

Order — Coccyges  Suborder — Alcyones 

Family — Alcedinidae  Genus — Ceryle 

Sub-genus — Streptoceryle  Species — Ceryle  alcyon 

Length — 13.50  to  14.50;  wing,  9.10  to  9.50;  tail,  3.80  to  4.30. 
Migration — North,  March ;  South,  November. 

"O'er  the  river's  brink  on  a  summer's  day, 

Where  lingering  the  shadows  love  to  play, 

On  an  overhanging  branch  sits  he 

And  waits  and  watches  patiently, 

Until   with  his  ever   restless  eye 

He    sees    a    silvery    fish    swim    by. 

Then  darting  into  the  river's  flow, 

Like  an  arrow  from  an  archer's  bow, 

With  a  daring  dash  and  splash  of  spray 

He   seizes   hold   of   his  finny  prey 

And  flings  a  wild  laugh  to  the  skies, 

As  he  mounts  above  with  the  shining  prize." 

The  family  Alcedinidae  has  in  it  about  one  hundred  and 
eighty  species  of  kingfishers.  A  majority  of  them  are  found 
in  the  Malay  Archipelago.  Only  eight  of  them  are  found  in 
America,  and  only  two  of  these  are  found  in  the  United  States, 
namely :  the  Belted  Kingfisher  and  the  Texas  Kingfisher.  This 
family  of  birds  have  a  stout  long  bill,  short  legs,  small  feet, 
three  toes  in  front  and  one  behind,  and  the  third  and  fourth 

63 


64  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

toes  are  jointed.  The  American  species  are  fish  eaters  and  are 
seldom  found  far  from  the  water. 

The  bill  of  the  adult  male  belted  kingfisher  is  two  inches 
long;  heavy,  sharp  pointed  and  of  a  dark-brown  color;  white 
speck  in  front  of  the  eye ;  iris  of  the  eye,  crimson-brown ;  head 
large  and  heavy  with  prominent  crest  and  grayish  blue  to 
the  nape;  wings  and  tail  grayish  blue,  minutely  speckled 
and  marked  with  broken  bands  of  white ;  throat  white,  this 
color  passing  on  to  the  sides  of  the  neck  and  nearly  meeting 
on  the  back  of  it ;  band  across  the  breast  and  sides,  bluish- 
gray;  lower  breast  and  belly,  white.  The  legs  are  very  short 
and  weak;  feet  small  with  three  toes  in  front  and  one  in 
the  rear;  toes  syndacytle,  that  is,  the  inner  and  middle  ones 
are  united  to  the  second  joint.  The  adult  female  is  similar 
to  the  male,  except  that  the  sides  and  the  bands  on  the  belly 
are  rufous.  Their  bodies,  like  those  of  the  water  fowl,  are 
covered  with  down  which  keeps  them  warm,  and  their  plum- 
age is  oily,  thus  admirably  adapting  them  to  the  life  they 
live  and  to  their  pursuit  of  fishing. 

The  range  of  the  belted  kingfisher  extends  from  Panama 
and  the  West  Indias  to  the  Arctic  Ocean,  and  they  breed 
throughout  their  range  northward  from  Florida  and  Texas. 
In  the  northern  part  of  their  range  they  are  summer  resi- 
dents, but  many  of  them  winter  in  some  of  the  New  England 
States,  as  well  as  in  Oregon  and  Washington  on  the  Pacific 
coast.  Their  remaining  through  the  winter  depends  much 
upon  whether  they  can  find  open  water  in  which  to  fish. 

Very  early  after  they  come  north  they  prepare  to  make 
their  nest,  which,  as  a  rule,  is  made  at  the  end  of  a  tunnel 
bored  into  the  perpendicular  bank  of  the  stream,  pond  or 
lake  from  which  they  get  their  food.  The  excavation  is  made 
by  both  the  male  and  female  working  alternately.  In  mak- 
ing the  nest,  the  birds  use  their  beaks  and  feet.  The  excava- 
tion is  circular  in  form  and  averages  about  four  inches  in 
diameter  and  varies  in  length  from  four  to  fifteen  feet,  accord- 
ing to  the  nature  of  the  soil.  Generally  it  ascends  slightly 
and  runs  perfectly  straight  for  the  entire  distance.  Occasion- 
ally, however,  it  diverges  at  different  angles,  at  various  dis- 
tances from  the  entrance  to  the  hole.  The  nesting  chamber 


The  Belted  Kingfisher  65 

at  the  farther  end  of  the  excavation  is  dome-shaped  and 
usually  from  eight  to  ten  inches  in  diameter.  The  time  re- 
quired in  making  the  excavation  varies  from  a  few  days  to 
two  or  three  weeks,  the  time  depending  largely  upon  the 
character  of  the  soil  in  which  the  excavation  is  made.  Five 
to  eight  glossy  white  translucent  eggs  are  laid,  sometimes 
on  the  bare  soil,  but  often  on  the  fish  bones,  which  being  in- 
digestible are  thrown  up  in  pellets  by  the  birds ;  and,  in 
any  case,  before  incubation  is  completed  these  rejectmenta 
accumulate  so  as  to  form  a  cup-shaped  structure  that  in- 
creases in  bulk  after  the  young  are  hatched  and  which  with 
the  decaying  fish,  brought  for  their  food,  soon  becomes  a 
fetid  mass.  Incubation  lasts  about  sixteen  days,  the  male 
taking  no  part  in  it  except  that  he  is  very  attentive  to  the 
female  and  supplies  her  with  food.  Frequently  he  makes  a 
shallow  second  excavation  close  to  the  first  so  that  he  may 
be  near  his  mate.  The  young  are  hatched  without  feathers, 
are  very  helpless,  and  remain  in  the  nest  for  several  weeks, 
and  are  fed  by  both  parents  who  are  very  devoted  to  them. 
Mr.  Ernest  Seton  Thompson  has  aptly  entitled  his  picture 
of  the  belted  kingfisher  as  the  "Lone  Fisherman."  Nothing 
is  truer  than  that  if  a  person  would  have  good  luck  in  fishing, 
he  must  not  take  a  crowd  with  him ;  a  small,  quiet  company 
is  more  desirable.  Indeed,  he  who  goes  alone  to  the  secluded 
places  of  a  stream  with  his  rod,  reel  and  line  is  the  true 
Izaak  Walton,  and  the  one  who,  as  a  rule,  will  have  the  best 
luck.  And  this  is  why  the  belted  kingfisher  is  a  "lone 
fisherman."  The  principal  part  of  his  food  consists  of  fish, 
and  in  obtaining  it  a  pair  of  them  will  secure  a  portion  of 
a  water  course,  lake  or  sea  shore  as  their  fishing  grounds. 
The  Fall  Creek  front  at  Buzzard's  Roost  is  one  of  these  fish- 
eries. The  birds  nest  just  below  it  in  what  is  known  as  the 
Rolling  Bank.  In  season  a  pair  of  kingfishers  may  be 
seen  plying  their  avocation  of  fishing  in  the  stream  above  and 
below  the  nest.  When  fishing  the  bird  alights  upon  the 
naked  limb  of  a  tree,  as  is  shown  in  the  illustration  and  with 
down-turned  head  watches  for  the  fish  in  the  water  below. 
Espying  one,  he  darts  down  into  the  water,  catches  it  with 
his  bill,  and  he  usually  has  good  luck.  Having  caught  his 


66  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

fish  he  returns  to  his  perch  with  great  exultation  to  devour 
it,  or  to  the  nest  to  feed  it  to  his  spouse  or  their  young. 

The  flight  of  the  kingfisher  consists  of  a  few  flaps  of 
the  wings,  followed  by  a  glide.  Sometimes  he  pauses  and 
seems  to  stand  upon  his  feet  and  beat  the  air  with  his 
wings,  as  a  sparrow  hawk  does  in  hovering  over  a  meadow. 
In  this  way  he  occasionally  stops  in  his  flight  over  a  stream 
and  watches  for  his  food.  Mr.  Selim  H.  Peabody  in  his  Book 
of  Birds,  in  giving  an  account  of  the  kingfisher,  says :  "His 
sight  is  very  keen,  and  he  finds  his  prey  even  in  the 
turbid  rapids  of  a  waterfall.  He  knows,  too,  how  to  take  a 
position  which  will  make  the  best  of  the  sunshine.  One 
sunny  afternoon  I  was  observing  a  kingfisher,  which  sat  upon 
a  naked  limb  of  an  oak,  overlooking  the  water.  For  a  long 
time  the  bird  saw  nothing,  and  did  not  move.  Presently  he 
left  his  perch,  and  flew  along  the  margin  of  the  lake  rather  in 
the  direction  of  the  sun.  After  going  a  few  rods  he  stopped, 
turned  his  back  to  the  sun,  and  for  a  few  seconds  stood 
balanced  on  his  wings,  and  looked  intently  into  the  water. 
Then  he  turned,  went  on  a  few  rods  farther,  again  turned  his 
back  to  the  sun,  repeated  his  careful  gaze,  and  again  went 
on.  At  the  third  or  fourth  pause,  he  spied  a  fish,  and  dropped 
upon  it  like  an  arrow.  At  each  pause  he  placed  himself  in 
the  air  over  the  water,  so  that  the  reflection  from  the  surface 
would  be  turned  away  from  him."  Sometimes  his  flight  is 
very  high  in  the  air,  so  high  that  he  can  not  be  seen  with 
the  naked  eye,  and  one  only  knows  that  he  is  passing  over 
by  the  rattling  noise  which  he  makes.  He  is  not  gifted  with 
song,  but  is  a  noisy  bird.  The  harsh  noise  made  by  him  is 
much  like  that  made  by  a  watchman's  whistle,  and  not  at  all 
pleasing. 

The  kingfisher  has  been  the  subject  of  many  legends. 
One  of  these  is  that  having  been  originally  a  plain,  gray 
bird,  it  acquired  its  bright  colors  by  flying  towards  the 
sun  on  its  liberation  from  Noah's  ark,  when  its  upper  surface 
assumed  the  hue  of  the  sky  above  and  its  lower  plumage 
was  scorched  by  the  heat  of  the  setting  orb  to  the  tint  it  now 
bears.  It  was  believed  by  the  ancients  that  the  kingfisher  was 
a  charmed  bird,  and  this  belief  is  yet  retained  by  some  people. 


The  Belted  Kingfisher  57 

It  is  said  that  some  of  the  Asiatic  nations  still-  wear  its  skin 
about  their  persons  as  a  protection  against  moral  and  physi- 
cal evils.  Its  feathers  are  used  as  love-charms,  and  it  is 
believed  that  if  its  body  is  evenly  fixed  upon  a  pivot  it  will 
turn  its  head  to  the  north  like  the  magnetic  needle  does.  It 
was  also  believed  that  its  dried  body  would  avert  thunder- 
bolts, and  if  kept  in  a  wardrobe  it  would  preserve  the  woolen 
stuffs  from  the  moths. 

From  mythology  we  learn  that  Ceyx  was  the  son  of 
Hesperus  and  Halcyone,  his  wife,  was  the  daughter  of  Aeolus. 
In  the  death  of  his  brother,  Ceyx  met  with  a  great  loss  and 
in  his  distress  determined  on  a  voyage  to  Charos  to  consult 
the  oracle  Apollo.  This  grieved  Halcyone  very  much  and  she 
tried  to  dissuade  him  from  going  by  telling  him  of  the  violence 
of  the  winds  which  he  would  encounter.  He  persisted  in 
going,  and  as  predicted,  his  life  was  lost  in  the  storm.  In 
the  meantime  Halcyone,  ignorant  of  his  loss,  counted  the 
days  till  her  husband's  promised  return.  She  prayed  inces- 
santly that  he  might  be  safe.  The  goddess  to  whom  she 
prayed,  at  length  could  not  bear  any  longer  to  be  pleaded 
with  for  one  already  dead.  She  directed  Somnus  to  send  a 
vision  to  Halcyone  in  her  sleep,  and  make  known  to  her  the 
death  of  Ceyx.  Somnus  delegated  the  doing  of  it  to  his  son 
Morpheus,  who  flew  to  the  Hsemonian  city  where  Halcyone 
was  asleep,  and  assuming  the  form  of  Ceyx,  with  tears  in  his 
eyes,  bent  over  the  bed  and  said  to  Halcyone,  "Do  you  rec- 
ognize your  Ceyx,  unhappy  wife,  or  has  death,  too,  changed 
my  vision?  Behold  me,  know  me,  your  husband's  shadow  in- 
stead of  himself.  Your  prayers  availed  me  nothing.  I  am 
dead."  She  wept,  groaned,  stretched  out  her  arms  in  her 
sleep  and  tried  to  embrace  his  body,  but  grasped  only  the  air. 
She  cried,  "This  it  was  that  my  presaging  mind  foreboded, 
when  I  implored  him  not  to  leave  me,  to  trust  himself  to  the 
waves.  O,  how  I  wish,  since  thou  wouldst  go,  thou  hadst 
taken  me  with  thee !  It  would  have  been  far  better.  Then 
I  should  have  no  remnant  of  life  to  spend  without  thee,  nor  a 
separate  death  to  die."  It  was  now  morning.  She  went  to  the 
seashore,  and  sought  the  spot  where  she  last  saw  Ceyx,  and 
looking  out  over  the  sea  discerned  an  indistinct  object  floating 


68  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

upon  the  water.  Borne  by  the  waves,  it  came  nearer.  Now 
it  approaches  the  shore.  It  is  her  husband,  and  in  her  agony 
she  exclaims,  "O,  dearest  husband,  is  it  thus  you  return  to 
me?"  She  leaped  from  the  shore  and  with  wings  produced 
on  the  instant,  flew  to  him  and  enfolded  his  bloodless  body 
with  her  new  formed  wings  and  tried  to  kiss  him  with  her 
horny  beak.  By  the  pitying  gods  both  of  them  were  changed 
into  birds.  They  mated  and  Halcyone  for  fourteen  days 
brooded  over  her  nest  which  floated  upon  the  sea.  Aeolus 
guarded  the  winds  and  kept  them  from  disturbing  the  deep. 
And  this  is  the  fabled  story  of  the  origin  of  the  belted  king- 
fisher, a  member  of  the  family  Alcedinidse,  and  of  Halcyon 
days,  a  name  given  by  the  ancients  to 'the  seven  days  preced- 
ing and  the  days  which  follow  the  winter  solstice.  And  since 
then  the  fisherman's  song  has  been: 

"Like  us,  for  fish,  she  sails  to  sea, 

And,  plunging,  shows  us  where  to  find  'em.  • 

Yo,  ho,  my  hearts!   let's  seek  the  deep, 

Ply  every  oar,  and  cheerily  wish  her, 

While  the  slow  bending  net  we  sweep, 

God  bless  the  Fish-bank  and  the  fisher." 


FROM  COL.   CH 

159 


GREAT  BLUE  HERON. 

(Ardea  herodias). 

I  Life-size. 


CHAPTER  XII. 


March  12— March  18. 

THE  GREAT  BLUE  HERON. 

Order — Herodiones  Suborder — Herodii 

Family — Ardeidse  Subfamily — Ardeinae 

Genus — Ardea  Species — Ardea  herodias 

Length — About  42.00  to  50.00;  wing,  17.90  to  19.85. 
Migration — North,  March ;  south,  October. 

"Grotesque  and  tall  he  stands  erect 
Where  the  reed-ripple  swirls  and  gleams. 

Grave,  melancholy,  circumspect, 
A  hermit  of  the  streams." 

The  family  Ardeidse  is  composed  of  the  bitterns  and 
herons,  and  has  in  it  about  seventy-five  species,  members  of 
which  are  found  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  but  most  frequently 
in  the  torrid  and  temperate  zones.  The  family  is  divided  into 
two  sub-families,  namely:  (1)  Botaurinse,  composed  of  the 
bitterns,  and,  (2)  Ardeinse,  composed  of  the  herons.  Of  the 
herons  there  are  nine  species  in  the  Middle  West,  and  of  these 
the  Great  Blue  Heron  is,  perhaps,  the  most  distinguished 
member. 

In  his  Key  to  North  American  Birds,  Mr.  Elliott  Coues 
says :  "It  is  in  this  family  that  powder-down  tracts  reach  their 
highest  development ;  and  although  these  peculiar  feathers  oc- 
cur in  some  other  birds,  there  appears  to  be  then  only  a  single 
pair;  so  that  the  presence  of  two  or  more  pairs  is  probably 

69 


70  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

diagnostic  of  the  family.  In  the  genus  Ardea  and  its  imme- 
diate allies  there  are  three  pairs,  the  normal  number ;  one  on 
the  lower  back  over  the  hips,  one  on  the  lower  belly  under 
the  hips,  and  one  on  the  breast  along  the  track  of  the  formula." 
The  powder-down  feathers  referred  to  in  the  foregoing  quo- 
tation are  feathers  which  are  remarkable  for  continuing  to 
grow  indefinitely,  and  with  this  there  is  a  constant  breaking 
off  of  the  ends  of  the  barbs.  In  the  illustration  they  are  read- 
ily seen  over  the  hips  and  in  front  of  the  breast.  Mr.  Coues 
says  their  use  is  not  known,  but  Mr.  Baskett  says  that  "it  has 
been  ascertained  that  in  herons  at  least  these  spots  are  phos- 
phorescent at  night,  and  that  fish  are  thereby  lured  within 
easy  reach." 

The  great  blue  heron,  commonly  called  the  blue 
crane,  is  about  four  feet  long  from  the  tip  of  the  bill  to  the 
end  of  the  tail  and  has  a  wing  extent  of  about  six  feet.  Its 
bill  is  from  four  to  six  inches  long  and  of  a  horn  color ;  iris  of 
the  eye,  yellow;  center  of  crown  and  throat,  white;  sides  of 
crown  black,  this  color  meeting  on  the  back  of  the  head  where 
the  feathers  are  lengthened  and  form  an  occipital  crest;  neck, 
pale  greenish-brown;  feathers  of  the  lower  foreneck  narrow 
and  much  lengthened,  sometimes  with  black  streaks ;  back, 
wing  coverts  and  tail  slaty  gray;  bend  of  wing,  chestnut  ru- 
fous ;  tail,  very  short  and  even ;  black  patch  and  white  feathers 
on  the  side  of  the  breast ;  breast  and  belly  streaked  with  black 
and  white;  tibia  long,  upper  half  feathered  and  of  rufous  color, 
lower  half  bare  and  yellowish ;  tarsus  about  eight  inches  long 
and  black ;  feet,  black ;  from  tip  of  front  toe  to  tip  of  hind  toe, 
eight  inches ;  hind  toe  is  on  a  level  with  the  others ;  claws  mod- 
erate, curved  and  acute  with  the  inner  edge  of  the  middle  one 
pectinated.  Formerly  it  was  believed  that  the  middle  toe  was 
pectinated  for  the  purpose  of  enabling  the  bird  to  seize  fish 
with  its  feet,  but  it  is  now  understood  that  this  comb-like  ar- 
rangement is  for  the  purpose  of  removing  from  the  bill  the 
sticky  down  which  adheres  to  it  after  cleaning  its  plumage; 
the  claw  is  passed  from  the  tip  of  the  bill  to  the  base  on  each 
side,  and  any  feathers,  slime  or  fish,  or  adhering  dirt  is  thus 
removed.  The  sexes  are  alike  in  appearance,  except  that  the 
male  is  the  largest. 


The  Great  Blue  Heron 


The  range  of  this  heron  extends  from  the  Columbia  Val- 
ley and  Venezuela  north  to  Hudson's  Bay  and  Sitka.  They 
are  practically  gregarious  and  are  altricial.  Generally  they 
nest  in  the  tops  of  trees  in  swamps  or  other  places  near  the 
water  and  in  communities  known  as  heronries.  Audubon 
says  that  once  they  have  taken  possession  of  a  breeding  place 
suited  to  their  taste,  they  will  return  to  it  annually,  and  repair 
the  old  nests  until  circumstances  force  them  to  abandon  it.  The 
nests  are  large  and  irregularly  formed  of  sticks  and  lined  with 
smaller  twigs.  Their  structure  sometimes  is  so  slight  that  they 
tumble  to  pieces  before  the  young  are  fit  to  fly.  The  eggs,  gen- 
erally four  to  a  clutch,  are  of  an  oblong  form,  larger  than  those 
of  the  domestic  hen,  and  of  a  light-greenish  blue,  without  any 
spots. 

Professor  W.  O.  Hendlee,  in  a  very  interesting  account 
of  a  heronry  in  Rush  County,  Indiana,  says :  "Incubation  lasts 
about  six  weeks,  and  it  is  well  into  summer  before  the  young 
are  able  to  leave  the  nest.  It  is  a  busy  time  in  the  heronry, 
you  may  guess,  when  the  young  are  hatched.  They  feed  on 
fish.  Their  principal  feeding  time  is  in  the  afternoon.  They 
place  themselves  in  the  shade  of  a  tree  by  the  water,  or  a 
drift,  or  among  the  reeds  and  water  plants,  and  patiently  wait 
for  their  prey,  which  they  seize  or  impale  with  their  long  sharp 
bills."  They  breed  but  once  in  a  season,  the  young  are  hatched 
without  plumes ;  these  develop  gradually  with  maturity.  The 
young  remain  on  the  trees  until  they  are  as  heavy  as  the  old 
birds  and  become  extremely  fat  before  they  are  able  to  fly. 
After  the  breeding  season  is  over  the  communities  break  up 
and  they  wander  about  singly  or  in  small  flocks,  and,  as  Mau- 
rice Thompson  says : 

"Where  the  water-grass  grows  ever  green 
On  damp  cool  flats  by  gentle  stream, 
Still  as  a  ghost  and  sad  mien, 
With  half-closed  eye  the  heron  dreams." 

Parkhurst  says :  "The  herons  are  all  alike  in  the  sadly 
reminiscent,  melancholy  air  that  characterizes  them  in  all  their 
attitudes.  The  heron  is  the  impersonation  of  gloom,  silence 


72  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

and  solitude.  Loneliness  can  only  be  expressed  by  sentiment 
life.  A  deeper  sense  of  desolation  is  aroused  by  seeing  a  water- 
fowl coursing  its  solitary  flight  above  the  sea,  than  in  the 
grandest  vision  of  the  boundless  deep,  unrelieved  by  even  the 
least  appearance  of  vitality."  The  flight  of  the  heron  is  slow 
and  solemn,  but  grand  and  stately.  Quite  frequently  I  have 
seen  them  making  their  way  up  and  down  Fall  Creek  at  Buz- 
zard's Roost  and  across  the  country  to  White  River,  and  vice 
versa.  This  occurs  generally  when  the  days  are  cloudy.  Oc- 
casionally their  flight  is  attended  with  their  quite  indescribable 
piercing  squawks  and  cries,  and  then,  according  to  Indian 
lore,  it  is  going  to  rain.  In  flight  the  neck  is  bent  backwards 
against  the  shoulders,  and  their  long  legs  are  stretched  out 
behind  them,  stiff  and  immovable,  At  Buzzard's  Roost  a 
favorite  place  for  them  to  alight  is  on  the  topmost  limbs  of  a 
large  sycamore  tree  on  the  bank  of  Fall  Creek  in  front  of  the 
cottage,  and  the  color  of  their  bodies  being  much  like  the  blue- 
gray  color  of  the  limbs  of  the  tree,  makes  it  somewhat  difficult 
to  see  them.  Occasionally  I  have  tracked  them  in  the  sand  on 
the  banks  of  the  stream.  Long  may  they  keep  coming  there, 
is  the  wish  of  the  owner  of  the  place.  They  add  a  distinctive 
and  interesting  feature  to  its  landscape. 

The  principal  part  of  the  food  of  this  heron,  as  al- 
ready stated,  consists  largely  of  fish.  He  is  also  fond  of  craw- 
fish, frogs,  snakes  and  eels.  Wilson  says :  "He  is  also  an  ex- 
cellent mouser,  and  of  great  service  to  our  meadows  in  de- 
stroying the  short-tailed  or  meadow  mouse,  so  injurious  to 
the  banks.  He  also  feeds  eagerly  on  grasshoppers,  various 
winged  insects,  particularly  dragon  flies,  which  he  is  very  ex- 
pert at  sticking,  and  also  eats  the  seeds  of  that  species  of  nym- 
phse  usually  called  splatter  dock,  so  abundant  along  our  fresh 
water  ponds  and  rivers."  As  has  already  been  said,  he  cap- 
tures his  food  with  his  long  and  sharp  bill.  He  also  uses  his 
bill  in  defending  himself  against  his  enemies.  My  friend  Dr. 
O.  S.  Coffin  tells  me  that  in  his  practice  he  has  had  two 
patients,  each  of  whom  had  lost  an  eye  by  an  attack  of  herons 
which  had  been  disabled  by  them  while  they  were  hunting. 
These  were  instances  where  the  hunted  in  some  measure  got 
even  with  those  who  hunted  them.  Perhaps  if  there  were 


The  Great  Blue  Heron  73 

more  such  instances,  there  would  be  less  reckless  killing  of 
these  useful  and  beautiful  birds. 

It  is  interesting  to  watch  them  taking  their  food.  One  of 
the  most  beautiful  bird  scenes  that  I  have  ever  witnessed  was 
that  of  five  large  white  herons,  ardea  egretta,  thus  engaged  in 
Fall  Creek.  The  water  was  clear,  the  day  bright,  and  the 
images  of  the  birds  were  beautifully  reflected  in  the  water. 
They  became  alarmed  at  my  presence,  took  flight  and  flew  up 
the  stream,  and  as  they  flew  their  bodies  continued  to  be  re- 
flected in  the  water,  as  beautifully  as  if  the  surface  of  the 
water  had  been  a  mirror. 

The  great  blue  heron  can  hardly  be  called  a  most  useful 
bird,  nor  has  he  any  music  to  commend  him,  but  he  may  be 
commended  for  what  he  does  not  do ;  he  is  an  innocent  and 
harmless  creature,  if  left  alone  in  his  wild  haunts.  It  is  his 
great,  though  simple,  beauty  that  makes  him  valuable.  The 
Japanese  more  than  any  other  people  have  appreciated  this 
fact,  and  have  availed  themselves  of  it  in  their  decorative 
paintings.  In  an  exhibition  of  Japanese  art  which  it  was  my 
privilege  to  attend  I  was  impressed  with  the  beauty  of  their 
bird  drawings  and  paintings,  and  especially  with  their  beauti- 
ful soft  blue  and  grayish  tints. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 


March  19— March  25. 


THE  WOOD  DUCK. 


Order— Anseres  Family^ Anatidae 

Subfamily — Anatinae  Genus — Aix 


bill,  1.40. 


Species — Aix  sponsa 

Length — 18.50  to  20.00;  wing,  9.00  to  9.50; 
Migration — North,  March  ;  south,  November. 

"Nothing  impaired  with  clean  and  ruddy  leg 

Through  every  plash  he  wades,  with  chattering  beak 

Fishes  the  miry  shallow  as  he  goes; 

In  quest  of  snail  or  slug,  or  winding  worm; 

Or  launching  from  the  shore  his  feathered  feet, 

Pilots  his  dames  along  the  flooded  dike." 

The  family  Anatidae  contains  about  two  hundred  species, 
and  members  of  it  are  found  in  all  parts  of  the  world.  It  in- 
cludes five  sub-families,  namely:  1.  Merginse  composed  of  the 
Mergansers  or  fish-eating  ducks;  2.  Anatinae,  the  pond  or 
river  ducks ;  3.  Fuligulinae,  the  bay  or  sea  ducks ;  4.  Anserinae, 
the  geese;  and  5.  Cygninae,  the  swans.  The  familiar  external 
characteristics  of  the  family  are  a  large  flattened  bill,  covered 
with  soft  epidermis  rather  than  horn,  and  with  sides  armed 
with  lamella  or  small  teethlike  processes ;  the  tongue  is  fleshy 
with  dentated  margins;  the  wings  are  moderate;  the  feet  are 
near  the  center  of  equilibrium ;  the  anterior  toes  joined  by  a 
web ;  and  the  neck  is  long.  The  wood  or  tree  duck,  aix  sponsa, 
belongs  to  the  sub-family  anatinae,  composed  of  the  pond  or 

75 


76  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

river  ducks,  and  it  is  often  designated  as  the  summer  duck. 
The  species  was  named  by  Linnaeus  on  account  of  its  beauty, 
sponsa,  a  bride.  It  is  the  most  beautiful  of  our  clucks.  It  is 
called  the  wood  duck  and  tree  duck  from  the  circumstance 
of  its  breeding  in  the  trees,  and  the  summer  duck  from  re- 
maining with  us  chiefly  during  the  summer. 

The  bill  of  the  adult  male  is  pinkish,  red  at  the  base,  black 
underneath  and  on  the  ridge  and  tip,  which  is  accutely  de- 
curved  ;  a  line  from  the  bill  over  the  eye,  a  similar  one  at  the 
base  of  the  side  of  the  elongated  crest,  and  some  of  the  crest 
feathers,  white ;  crown  of  head,  remainder  of  crest,  cheeks, 
green  with  purple  reflections ;  iris  of  the  eye,  reddish ;  throat, 
a  band  from  it  up  to  the  side  of  the  head,  and  a  wider  one  on 
the  nape,  white ;  breast,  rich  reddish  chestnut  spotted  with 
white ;  back,  greenish  brown ;  white  and  black  crescent  in 
front  of  wings,  which  are  a  glossy  green,  tipped  with  white  ; 
wings,  purplish  blue,  edged  with  white ;  spot  at  either  side  of 
base  of  tail,  reddish  chestnut ;  tail,  greenish  blue ;  belly,  white  ; 
flank  feathers  being  tipped  with  wider  bars  of  black  and  white ; 
legs,  yellow.  Adult  female  smaller;  bill,  reddish;  head  and 
neck,  dull ;  chestnut  of  the  neck  detached  and  dull ;  sides  not 
striped ;  legs  and  feet,  yellowish  inside. 

The  range  of  the  wood  duck  extends  from  Cuba  and  the 
southern  border  of  the  United  States,  north  to  Nova  Scotia, 
New  Brunswick  and  Ontario,  and  westward  to  British  Colum- 
bia. It  is  not  common  in  the  eastern  Canadian  Provinces,  but 
in  parts  of  Manitoba  and  British  Columbia  it  is  abundant.  In 
the  Saskatchewan  region  it  has  been  found  as  far  north  as 
latitude  54  degrees  and  on  the  west  shore  of  the  Hudson  Bay 
as  high  as  latitude  60  degrees,  but  it  is  rare  north  of  latitude 
50  degrees.  In  the  United  States,  it  is  commonly  distributed 
in  the  Mississippi  Valley,  and  eastward,  as  well  as  along  the 
Pacific  Coast  from  Washington  to  Southern  California,  but,  in 
a  few  isolated  localities,  it  is  very  rare  or  absent  in  the  Great 
Basin,  Rocky  Mountains  and  Great  Plains  region. 

They  breed  throughout  the  greater  part  of  their  range. 
Often  they  are  paired  before  migrating,  and  through  April 
most  of  them  are  mated,  and  are  looking  for  nesting  sites.  The 
nest  is  generally  placed  in  a  natural  or  artificial  cavity  of  a 


The  Wood  Duck  77 

tree.  Almost  any  tree,  or  tree  branch,  containing  the  essential 
hollow,  and  suitably  located,  is  utilized.  Broken  branches 
of  high  sycamores,  seldom  more  than  forty  or  fifty  feet  from 
the  water,  are  according  to  Audubon,  favorite  places  for  their 
nests.  Occasionally  the  nest  is  placed  among  the  branches  of 
trees  and  is  built  of  twigs,  grasses,  leaves  and  feathers.  A  pair 
will  nest  in  the  same  place  for  years  in  succession,  and  this 
would  seem  to  indicate  that  they  mate  for  life.  Eight  to  four- 
teen creamy  white  eggs,  oval  in  shape  and  less  in  size  than 
those  of  a  hen,  constitute  a  clutch.  The  female  attends  to  the 
incubation  which  .lasts  about  twenty-one  days.  During  this 
time,  she  leaves  the  nest  only  long  enough  to  obtain  food  and 
water,  and  when  she  leaves  the  nest,  she  carefully  covers  the 
eggs  with  feathers  and  down.  During  the  nesting  period,  the 
male  remains  close  by  where  the  nest  is  located,  seemingly 
keeping  a  watch  over  his  mate  and  her  nest. 

Like  the  young  of  domestic  ducks  and  other  precocial 
birds,  young  wood  ducks  are  ready  to  leave  the  nest  and  obtain 
their  food  as  soon  as  they  are  hatched.  How  do  they  get  from 
the  nest  to  the  ground  and  water?  This  question  has  been 
answered  in  various  ways.  Audubon,  Wilson,'  Chapman  and 
other  authors  agree  that  they  "are  brought  from  the  nest  to 
the  ground  in  the  bill  of  the  parent."  Wilson  in  describing 
the  process  says,  "She  caught  them  in  her  bill  by  the  wing  or 
back  of  the  neck,  and  landed  them  safely  at  the  foot  of  the 
tree,  when  she  afterwards  led  them  to  the  water."  Mr. 
Abbott,  however,  in  A  Naturalist's  Rambles  about  Home, 
gives  a  full  account  of  two  nests  which  he  watched.  Of  the 
first  he  says,  "I  had  not  long  to  wait  before  the  modus  oper- 
andi  in  this  case  was  learned.  The  old  duck,  by  sound  or 
actions,  gave  the  little  ducklings  to  understand  that  they  were 
to  follow  their  mother,  and  presently  she  slowly  clambered 
down  the  trunk  of  the  tree,  which  grew  at  an  angle  of  forty- 
five  degrees  from  the  level  surface  of  the  ground,  and  was 
followed  by  the  ducklings.  *  *  *  There  is  one  fact,  too, 
that  has  an  important  bearing  on  this  subject.  It  is  well 
known  to  those  who  have  tried  to  rear  young  wood-ducks, 
that  the  newly  hatched  birds  have  long,  sharp,  really  cat-like 
toe-nails ;  and  by  their  aid  the  little  ducklings,  while  yet  bits 


78  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

of  shell  cling  to  their  backs,  can  clamber  over  the  limbs  of 
trees  and  up  any  almost  perpendicular  surface,  if  at  all  rough. 
*  *  *  Two  years  later  I  found  another  duck's  nest.  In  this 
instance  the  nest  was  fully  fifty  feet  above  the  water,  in  a 
tangled  mass  of  twigs  and  grape  vine,  on  a  large  button-wood 
that  grew  from  the  water's  edge  and  towered  nearly  one  hun- 
dred feet  above  the  creek.  On  the  third  day  I  was  rewarded 
for  my  persistence,  for  on  taking  my  position  in  the  neighbor- 
ing tree,  I  saw  that  some  of  the  young  had  disappeared,  and 
I  felt  sure  the  others  would  follow  soon,  unless,  indeed,  their 
fellows  had  fallen  from  the  nest.  This  proved  not  to  have 
been  the  case,  for,  in  the  course  of  an  hour,  the  old  duck  made 
her  appearance,  and  now  I  fairly  held  my  breath  as  I  watched 
her  with  my  glass.  After  a  moment's  rest  she  squatted 
closely  down  on  the  nest,  and  a  duckling  quickly  climbed 
upon  her  back  and  nestled  closely  between  her  shoulders. 
The  old  bird  then  walked  slowly  to  the  very  edge  of  an  over- 
hanging limb  and  with  outspread  wings,  with  a  slow  flapping 
motion  of  them,  let  herself  down,  rather  than  flew,  to  the 
water.  The  moment  she  touched  the  surface  of  the  stream 
she  dived,  and  left  the  duckling  swimming  on  the  water,  and 
to  all  appearances  perfectly  at  home.  This  was  repeated  four 
times,  when  the  tender  brood  were  all  safely  afloat,  and  as 
quick  to  scent  danger  and  flee  from  it  as  was  their  mother." 
Ducks  do  not  sing;  some  of  them  quack.  The  common 
note  of  the  drake  of  the  wood  duck  is  "peet,  peet ;"  but  when 
standing  sentinel,  if  he  sees  danger  his  note  is  changed  to 
"oe  eek;  oe  eek!",  and  the  response  of  the  young  is  a  soft 
mellow  "pee,  pee,  pee-e,"  which  is  uttered  rapidly,  and  at 
repeated  intervals.  Mr.  Butler  in  his  Birds  of  Indiana, 
says,  "As  the  broods  hatch  they  are  led  to  the  more  re- 
tired waters  and  taught  all  that  is  necessary  to  know  about 
feeding,  diving  and  flying,  together  with  all  the  necessary  ac- 
complishments. When  they  are  deemed  ready  to  care  for 
themselves,  they  come  out  upon  the  more  open  stream."  The 
flight  of  this  duck  is  swift  and  graceful,  and  it  rivals  the  grouse 
and  quail  in  the  ease  and  facility  with  which  it  glides  through 
the  woods  among  the  branches.  Its  food  consists  of  insects, 
the  seeds  and  leaves  of  aquatic  plants,  and  beechnuts  and 


The  Wood  Duck  79 

acorns.     Its  fondness  for  the  latter  on  which  it  feeds  largely 
in  autumn  gives  it  in  some  localities  the  name  of  acorn  duck. 

In  my  boyhood  these  ducks  were  very  plentiful  in  our 
streams  and  marshes ;  now  they  are  very  rare.  Almost  every 
spring  two  or  three  pairs  of  them  are  seen  flying  up  Fall 
Creek  at  Buzzard's  Roost,  but,  so  far  as  I  know,  they  do  not 
breed  in  this  locality.  Dr.  A.  K.  Fisher  in  1901  in  the  Year 
Book  of  the  U.  S.  Department  of  Agriculture  under  the  title 
Two  Vanishing  Birds,  published  a  very  full  and  interesting 
account  of  the  woodcock  and  the  wood  duck.  He  very  clearly 
demonstrates  that  unless  vigorous  measures  are  taken  these 
two  birds  are  doomed  to  extinction.  Spring  shooting  is  that 
which  does  most  to  bring  this  about.  He  says  "it  goes  without 
saying  that  birds  are  most  easily  and  more  completely  de- 
stroyed on  the  breeding  grounds  than  on  areas  which  they 
merely  pass  over  during  migration ;  for  when  breeding  season 
arrives  and  the  nesting  site  is  chosen  birds  become  less  shy 
and  more  inclined  to  remain  in  the  neighborhood,  so  that  the 
gunners  (the  term  'sportsmen'  can  not  be  used  in  this  con- 
nection), while  in  search  for  late  migrants,  have  little  difficulty 
in  killing  all  the  wood  ducks  that  are  to  be  found."  Is  it  not 
a  shame  that  there  are  those  who  have  so  little  consideration 
for  the  useful  and  beautiful  creatures  that  God  has  given  us 
that  they  destroy  them  even  to  utter  extinction? 


CHAPTER  XIV. 


March  26— April  1. 

THE  AMERICAN  WOODCOCK. 

Order — Limicolse  Family — Scolopacidse 

Genus — Philohela  Species — Philohela  minor 

Length — 10.50  to  11.75  !  wing,  4.80  to  5.70;  bill,  2.50  to  3.00. 
Migration — North,  March  ;  south  October. 

The  family  Scolopacidse,  of  which  the  American  wood- 
cock is  a  member,  is  composed  of  the  snipes  and  sandpipers. 
The  family  has  in  it  about  one  hundred  species  and  these  are 
distributed  throughout  the  world.  About  forty-five  of  them 
are  found  in  North  America.  As  a  rule,  they  have  long  bills 
with  which  they  probe  the  soft  earth  or  mud  for  their  food. 
Most  of  them  are  shore  birds. 

Our  woodcock  is  called  the  American  woodcock,  philo- 
hela  minor,  to  distinguish  it  from  the  European  woodcock, 
scolopax  rusticola,  which  bears  a  general  appearance  to  the 
American  species.  Some  of  the  early  writers  claimed  that  they 
were  identical.  But  Wilson  says,  "A  few  traits  will  clearly 
point  out  the  difference.  The  lower  parts  of  the  European 
woodcock  are  thickly  barred  with  dusky  waved  lines  on  a  yel- 
lowish white  ground.  The  present  species  has  those  parts 

81 


82  v  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

of  a  bright  ferrugiuous.  The  male  of  the  American  species 
weighs  from  five  to  six  ounces,  the  female  eight;  the  European 
twelve.  The  European  woodcock  makes  its  first  appearance 
in  Britain  in  October  and  November,  that  country  being  in 
fact  its  only  winter  quarters ;  for  early  in  March  they  move 
off  to  the  northern  parts  of  the  continent  to  breed.  The  Ameri- 
can species,  on  the  contrary,  winters  in  countries  south  of  the 
United  States,  arrives  here  early  in  March,  extends  its  migra- 
tions as  far,  at  least,  as  the  river  St.  Lawrence,  breeds  in  all 
the  intermediate  places,  and  retires  again  to  the  south  on  the 
approach  of  winter.  The  one  migrates  from  the  torrid  to  the 
temperate  regions ;  the  other  from  the  temperate  to  the  artic." 
In  appearance  the  male  and  female  woodcock  are  alike, 
except  that,  as  we  have  seen,  the  female  is  the  largest.  The 
body  is  stout  and  the  head,  bill  and  eyes  are  very  large.  The 
bill  is  from  two  and  a  half  to  three  inches  long.  This  it  uses 
as  a  probe  in  obtaining  its  food  from  borings  in  the  mud.  Two 
of  these  are  indicated  in  the  illustration — the  one  just  in  front 
and  the  other  in  the  rear  of  the  right  foot.  It  is  said  that  the 
tip  of  the  bill  is  supplied  with  very  delicate  nerves  which 
enables  the  bird  to  determine  when  it  has  touched  a  worm, 
and  recently  Mr.  Gordon  Trumball  has  discovered  that  the 
bird  can  move  the  tip  of  its  upper  mandible  independently  of 
the  lower  one,  and  thus  the  organ  is  made  to  act  as  a  finger  to 
assist  it  in  drawing  food  from  the  ground.  The  eyes  are  fixed 
far  back  from  the  bill,  and  high  in  the  head.  Wilson  says  that 
this  construction  was  necessary  to  give  a  greater  range  of 
vision  and  to  secure  the  eye  from  injury  while  the  owner  is 
searching  in  the  mire  for  food.  Being  a  bird  of  nocturnal 
habits,  like  the  owls  and  night  hawks,  its  very  large  eyes  with 
exceedingly  large  pupils  are  adapted  for  seeing  in  the  dark, 
and  accordingly  Mr.  Chapman  calls  it  the  owl  among  snipes. 
On  the  hind  part  of  the  head  are  three  transverse  black 
bands,  alternating  with  three  others  of  pale  yellowish  rufous ; 
a  brownish  black  line  from  the  eyes  to  the  bill  and  one  be- 
low the  eyes.  The  upper  parts  are  variegated  with  pale  ashy, 
yellowish  rufous  of  various  shades,  and  black ;  the  lower  parts 
are  pale  rufous,  brighest  on  the  sides.  The  wings  are  short 
and  rounded ;  almost  tailless ;  tibiae  short  and  feathered  to  the 


The  American  Woodcock  83 

knee ;  toes,  long  and  cleft  to  the  base  with  the  hindermost  ones 
projecting  high  up. 

The  woodcock  is  an  inhabitant  of  the  middle  and  eastern 
part  of  the  United  States.  It  is  rare  or  accidental  west  of  the 
ninety-seventh  degree  of  longitude  and  north  of  eastern  Mani- 
toba, the  Great  Lakes,  Ottawa  and  St.  Lawrence  rivers.  Its 
true  home  is  in  the  Mississippi  Valley  and  the  northern  and 
middle  tiers  of  the  States,  where  it  is  found  on  the  springy 
hillsides  and  marshy  ground  along  streams  where  it  nests  and 
gets  its  food.  In  the  winter  it  is  found  chiefly  in  the  South 
Atlantic  and  Gulf  States,  particularly  in  the  extreme  alluvial 
tracts  of  Georgia  and  Louisiana. 

Dr.  A.  K.  Fisher  in  his  bulletin,  Two  Vanishing  Game 
Birds,  says,  "The  general  appearance  of  the  woodcock 
clearly  suggests  its  nocturnal  or  crepuscular  habits.  During 
the  brightest  parts  of  the  day  it  seldom  takes  wing  unless 
disturbed,  though  it  may  perhaps  feed  in  secluded  places  dur- 
ing dark,  cloudy  weather,  or  when  protected  by  unusually 
thick  cover.  When  dusk  comes,  however,  it  is  all  activity,  and 
leaves  its  hiding  place  to  visit  its  feeding  grounds  in  marshes, 
along  streams  in  low  meadows,  or  in  fields  of  growing  corn. 
In  favorable  localities,  the  woodcock  can  be  heard  at  dusk 
flying  back  and  forth,  and  occasionally  the  glimmer  of  their 
wings  can  be  seen  as  they  alight  in  the  open.  In  former  days, 
before  they  had  become  scarce,  it  was  a  common  sight  from 
early  twilight  until  dark  to  see  or  hear  them  flying  about  the 
open  pastures  or  springy  hillsides  of  northern  New  York,  nor 
was  it  a  rare  event  to  flush  them  from  the  kitchen  garden  or 
barnyard,  or  even  from  shrubbery  close  to  the  house,  where 
they  had  come  in  search  of  food.  Their  flight  is  variable,  not 
only  in  character,  but  also  in  force  and  swiftness ;  at  times, 
when  the  animal  is  pursued,  its  movements  are  seemingly 
labored  and  irregular  as  it  zigzags  up  toward  the  tree  tops; 
at  other  times  it  has  the  swift,  regular  motion  characteristic 
of  other  members  of  the  group."  He  shows  conclusively 
that  unless  strong  protective  measures  are  adopted  this  most 
popular  and  valuable  of  our  game  birds  will  soon  become 
extinct. 

They  breed  throughout;  their  range,  and  this  makes  the 


84  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

time  of  their  breeding  vary  according  to  the  location  in  which 
they  are  found.  In  Louisiana  and  Florida  eggs  haVe  been  found 
early  in  February.  In  the  Middle  West  they  do  not  commence 
until  about  the  middle  of  March.  The  nest  usually  is  a  loose 
structure  of  grass  placed  among  the  leaves  in  a  more  or  less 
hilly  place  near  the  feeding  grounds  where  it  will  be  out  of 
danger  of  rising  water.  At  Buzzard's  Roost,  I  accidentally 
found  one  in  the  edge  of  the  timber,  on  the  point  of  a  hill 
next  to  Fall  Creek.  The  eggs  are  buffy  in  color,  mottled  or 
spotted  with  darker  shades,  and  generally  are  four  in  number. 
From  the  instant  the  young  leave  the  shell  they  are  able  to 
feed  themselves,  but  it  is  said  that  the  mother  bird  carries  them 
to  their  feeding  grounds. 

The  courtship  on  the  part  of  the  male  woodcock  is  a  most 
interesting  performance.  Mr.  Eugene  P.  Bicknell  gives  a  very 
interesting  account  in  the  Auk,  July,  1885,  of  the  flight  of  one 
which  he  witnessed  on  such  an  occasion.  He  says,  "The  bird 
would  start  up  from  amid  the  shrubbery,  with  a  tremulous, 
whirring  sound  of  the  wings,  rising  with  spiral  course  into  the 
air.  The  spiral  varied  considerably  in  pitch,  sometimes  ex- 
panding to  sweep  far  out  over-  the  neighboring  fields,  where 
a  single  evolution  would  carry  the  bird  upward  almost  to  the 
extremity  of  its  flight,  which  was  sometimes  over  the  point  of 
departure.  The  rapid  trilling  sound  with  which  it  started  off, 
as  woodcocks  do,  continued  without  interruption  during  the 
ascent  but  gradually  became  more  rapid,  and  as  the  bird 
neared  its  greatest  height,  passed  into  pulsations  of  quivering 
sound.  Each  pulsation  was  shorter  and  faster  than  the  last, 
and  took  the  tremolo  to  a  higher  pitch,  sounding  like  a  throb- 
bing whirl  of  fine  machinery  or  suggesting  in  movement  the 
accelerating,  rythmic  sound  of  a  railway  car  gradually 
gaining  full  speed  after  a  stop.  At  last,  when  it 
seemed  as  if  greater  rapidity  was  not  possible,  the  vertex  of 
the  flight  would  be  reached,  and  descending  with  increasing 
swiftness,  the  bird  would  break  forth  into  an  irregular  chip- 
pering,  almost  a  warble,  the  notes  sounding  louder  and  more 
liquid  as  it  neared  the  earth.  Suddenly  there  would  be  silence, 
and  a  small,  dark  object  would  dart  past  through  the  dusk, 
down  amid  the  shrubbery.  Then  at  silent  intervals,  a  single 


The  American  Woodcock  85 

strange  and  rather  startling  note,  a  loud,  sharp,  and  some- 
what nasal  'speat'  or  'spueat,'  which  sounded  as  delivered 
with  a  spiteful  directness  at  some  offensive  object."  At  other 
times  the  flight  of  the  woodcock  is  slow.  When  flushed  in  the 
woods,  he  rises  to  the  height  of  the  bushes  or  underwood,  and 
almost  instantly  drops  behind  them  again  at  a  short  distance, 
and  as  soon  as  he  touches  the  ground  runs  off  for  several 
yards. 


CHAPTER  XV. 


APRIL  2  to  April  8. 

THE  KILLDEER. 

Order — Limicolae  Family — Charadriidae 

Genus — Aegialitis.  Sub-genus — Oxyechus 

Species — Agialitis  vocifera 

Length — 10.00  to  11.25  5  wing,  6.20  to  6.75  ;  tail,  3.60  to  4.10. 
Migration — North,  March ;  south,  November. 

"O  little  plover,  still  circling  over 

Your  nest  in  clover,  your  house  of  love, 
Sure  none  dare  harm  it,  and  none  alarm  it 

While  you  are  keeping  your  watch  above." 

"Now  let  me  pass,  sir,  a  harmless  lass,  sir, 

With  no  designs  on  your  eggs  of  blue, 
I  wish  your  family  both  health  and  wealth,  sir, 

And  to  be  as  faithful  and  kind  as  you." 

The  family  Charadriidse  is  composed  of  the  plovers,  and 
has  in  it  about  one  hundred  species.  Only  eight  of  these  are 
found  in  North  America.  Birds  of  this  family  have  large  heads 
with  moderately  long  and  slender  bills  which  are  shaped 
somewhat  like  a  pigeon's ;  short,  thick  necks  and  plump 
bodies ;  wings  long,  pointed  and  extending  to  the  tip  of  the 
tail,  and  in  some  instances  with  spurs ;  tails  short,  broad,  and 
generally  even;  tarsi,  long  and  slender;  the  outer  and  middle 
toes  are  more  or  less  united  at  the  base,  and  the  hind  toe 
small  or  wanting.  Indeed  it  may  be  said  that  this  is  the  three 
toed  family  of  birds. 

The  killdeer,  a  member  of  this  family,  gets  its  name  from 
its  notes  of  "kill-dee,  kill-dee,  dee,  dee,  dee."  In  appearance 

87 


Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 


the  male  and  female  are  alike.  The  color  of  its  bill  is  black ; 
eyelids,  red ;  iris,  dark  brown ;  the  head  above  and  the  upper 
parts  of  the  body  are  light  brown  with  a  greenish  tinge ; 
around  the  neck  is  a  black  ring  or  collar  from  which  comes 
its  name  of  ring  neck  plover;  a  spot  at  the  base  of  the  upper 
mandible,  a  line  over  the  eyes,  ring  around  the  neck,  the 
under  part  of  the  throat  and  the  underparts  of  the  body  are 
white,  with  white  spots  on  the  shorter  primaries,  and  the 
secondaries  and  the  four  middle  feathers  of  the  tail  are  tipped 
with  the  same  color. 

The  range  of  the  killdeer  extends  from  Columbia  and  the 
West  Indies  north  to  Manitoba  and  Alaska,  and  it  breeds 
throughout  its  range.  In  the  southern  states  it  commences 
breeding  about  the  beginning  of  April  and  a  month  later  in 
the  Middle  West.  Its  nest  is  a  mere  depression  in  the  ground 
and  is  difficult  to  find  because  the  eggs  are  of  a  mottled 
creamy  color,  and  much  resemble  the  ground  or  gravel  about 
them.  Four  of  these  constitute  a  set,  and  a  peculiar  fact  is 
that  the  small  ends  are  laid  together  so  as  to  form  the  appear- 
ance of  a  Greek  cross.  The  young  are  able  to  run  early  after 
they  are  hatched,  and  the  old  birds  are  very  devoted  to  them — 
so  much  so  that  the  female  will  resort  to  all  kinds  of  ruses  and 
manoeuvres  in  order  to  divert  one  who  approaches  them.  She 
will  throw  herself  upon  the  ground  two  or  three  yards  in  ad- 
vance, raise  and  flutter  with  one  wing  quite  helplessly  and  cry 
piteously,  in  order  to  lure  the  intruder  away  from  her  young 
and  give  them  a  chance  to  escape  and  hide,  and  the  male  will 
fly  overhead  in  a  circle  about  the  intruder  and  scold  him  with 
his  "kill-dee,  kill-dee,  dee,  dee,  dee"  in  the  most  vehement  way. 

The  killdeers  frequent  uplands  and  lowlands,  fields  and 
shores.  They  prefer  newly  plowed  fields,  the  banks  of  clear 
streams,  and  the  elevated,  worn-out  grounds,  where  they  feed 
on  worms,  grasshoppers,  small  crustaceans  and  snails.  I  have 
very  pleasant  recollections  of  them  following  the  plow  when 
I  was  a  plow-boy.  One  of  their  peculiar  characteristics  is  their 
restlessness.  They  are  ever  on  the  alert  and  always  in  a  place 
where  they  can  see  what  is  going  on  about  them.  One  will  run 
about  in  a  small  space  of  ground  here  and  there,  and  often 
when  there  is  nothing  to  disturb  him,  will  take  wing  to  some 


The  Killdeer  89 


other  posture  or  stream  and  dart  down  to  investigate  another 
bit  of  scenery.  I  do  not  remember  to  have  ever  seen  a  flock  of 
them  in  repose.  They  have  the  habit  of  bobbing  up  and  down 
in  a  kind  of  involuntary  courtesy  especially  if  any  one  is 
watching  them  and  they  are  a  trifle  suspicious  of  the  intruder. 
They  then  are  apt  to  start  off  in  a  rapid  run,  and  as  they  run, 
utter  their  other  and  lower  call  which  is  represented  by 
"te-e-e-e-e-t."  Their  large  eyes  tell  the  story  that  they  feed 
at  night  as  well  as  in  the  day  time,  and  often  at  night,  when 
the  first  faint  stars  peep  out  from  the  folds  of  night's  gray  cur- 
tains, their  call,  "kildee,  kildee"  is  to  be  heard.  The  negroes 
down  south  believe  that  the  killdeer  is  a  witch  bird,  and  some 
of  them  never  shoot  them  for  fear  the  spirit  of  the  dead  bird 
might  come  back  and  haunt  them. 

Except  when  breeding  kildeers  are  gregarious.  As  Wil- 
son says,  "'They  usually  stand  erect  on  their  legs,  and  run  or 
walk  with  the  body  in  a  stiff  horizontal  position  ;  they  run  with 
great  swiftness,  and  are  also  strong  and  vigorous  in  the  wings. 
When  in  flight  they  sometimes  rise  to  a  great  height  in  the  air. 
Their  flesh  is  not  very  good  for  food,  but  they  are  hunted  and 
killed  for  that  purpose."  That  they  are  useful  birds  can  not 
be  successfully  controverted.  I  agree  with  Mr.  William  L. 
Bailey  that  "the  kildeer  is  in  every  respect  a  beautiful  bird. 
Whether  seen  at  a  distance,  sailing  or  diving  with  such  grace- 
ful ease  through  the  buoyant  air,  or  whether  upon  a  nearer 
view,  we  look  upon  the  lively  tints  of  his  exquisite  plumage, 
we  can  not  but  feel  that  he  is  worthy  of  our  notice,  and  to  be- 
come the  companion  of  our  rambles." 

The  migration  of  birds  is,  perhaps,  the  most  interesting 
subject  connected  with  their  study.  What  becomes  of  our  sum- 
mer birds?  Where  do  they  spend  the  winter?  By  what  routes 
do  they  travel  and  how  do  they  travel  to  their  destinations? 
How  do  they  find  their  way?  These  are  questions  which  have 
been  puzzling  the  brain  of  man  for  centuries.  Some  of  our 
shore  birds  appear  to  make  traveling  their  chief  occupation. 
Notably  among  these  is  the  American  golden  plover,  a  cousin 
to  the  killdeer  plover.  In  a  valuable  paper  Mr.  Wells  W.  Cooke 
of  the  United  States  Department  of  Agriculture,  says  that  the 
golden  plovers  are  found  in  southern  Brazil  and  the  prairie  re- 


go  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

gion  of  Argentina  from  September  to  March.  In  March  they, 
appear  in  Guatemala  and  Texas ;  April  finds  their  long  lines 
trailing  across  the  prairies  of  the  Mississippi  Valley ;  the  frost 
of  May  sees  them  creeping  along  our  northern  boundaries  and 
through  Canada  and  by  the  first  week  in  June  we  find  them  in 
their  place  of  breeding,  in  the  bleak,  wind-swept  "barren 
grounds"  above  the  Artie  Circle,  far  beyond  the  tree  line. 
Some  even  venture  one  thousand  miles  farther  north.  While 
the  lakes  are  still  ice  bound,  they  hurriedly  fashion  shabby 
little  nests  in  the  moss  only  a  few  inches  above  the  frozen, 
ground.  By  August  they  have  hatched  their  young  and  with 
them  have  hastened  to  the  coast  of  Labrador  to  enjoy  a  feast 
of  the  crowberry,  a  juicy,  black,  fruit  which  is  produced  in 
great  quantities  on  a  vine  which  grows  over  the  rocks  and  tree- 
less slopes  of  that  inhospitable  coast.  After  a  few  weeks  of 
such  feasting  the  plovers  become  excessively  fat  and  are  ready 
for  their  return  flight.  They  have  raised  their  young 
under  the  midnight  sun,  and  now  they  seek  a  southern  hem- 
isphere. After  gaining  the  coast  of  Nova  Scotia  they  strike 
straight  out  to  sea  and  take  a  direct  course  for  the  eastermost 
islands  of  the  West  Indies.  Eighteen  hundred  miles  of  ocean 
waste  lie  between  the  last  land  of  Nova  Scotia  and  the  first 
of  the  Antilles,  and  yet  six  hundred  more  to  the  eastern  main- 
land of  South  America,  their  objective  point.  The  only  land 
along  the  route  is  the  Bermuda  Islands,  eight  hundred  miles 
from  Nova  Scotia.  In  fair  weather  the  birds  fly  past  the  Ber- 
mudas without  stopping;  indeed  they  are  often  seen  by  vessels 
five  hundred  miles  or  more  east  of  these  islands.  Though 
feathered  balls  of  fat  when  they  leave  Labrador,  and  still 
plump  when  they  pass  the  Bermudas,  the  plovers  alight  lean 
and  hungry  in  the  Antilles.  Only  the  first,  though  the  hardest, 
half  of  the  journey  is  over.  After  a  short  stop  of  three  or  four 
weeks  in  the  Antilles  and  on  the  northern  coasts  of  South 
America,  the  flocks  disappear,  and  later  their  arrival  is  noted 
at  the  place  from  which  they  made  their  start  in  March.  What 
a  journey !  Eight  thousand  miles  of  latitude  separates  the  ex- 
tremities of  their  elliptical  course,  and  three  thousand  of  longi- 
tude constitutes  the  shorter  diameter,  and  all  for  the  sake  of 
spending  ten  weeks  on  an  Artie  coast. 


gai 


CHAPTER  XVI. 


April  9— April  15. 

THE  AMERICAN  ROBIN. 

Order — Passeres.  Suborder — Oscines. 

Family — Turdidae  Subfamily — Turdinse. 

Genus — Merula.  Species — Merula  migratoria. 

Length — 9.00  to  10.00;  wing,  4.90  to  5.40;  tail,  4.10  to  4.50. 
Migration — North,  March;  south,  October. 

"I  love  to  sit  and  listen 

In  the  dawning  of  the  day, 
To  the  robin  sweetly  singing, 

In  the  tree  across  the  way. 

The  American  robin  is  a  member  of  the  subfamily  tur- 
dinse,  composed  of  the  thrushes.  Like  the  English  sparrow,  it 
is  so  common,  both  in  the  city  and  the  country,  that  by  sev- 
eral authors  it  is  made  a  standard  of  measurement.  It  would 
seem  therefore  almost  unnecessary  to  describe  the  bird,  yet  in 
the  schools  I  have  found  grown  up  children,  who  could  not 
tell  me  the  color  of  its  bill.  Indeed  the  artist  who  made  the 
illustration  for  this  chapter  has  failed  to  depict  it  correctly, 
since  he  has  made  it  brown  with  a  slight  tinge  of  yellow  in- 
stead of  making  it  yellow  with  a  slight  tinge  of  brown.  When 
talking  to  a  school  about  birds,  one  of  the  boys  asked  me  how 
the  robin  got  its  name,  and  all  that  I  could  tell  him  was  that 
it  was  so  named  because  of  its  supposed  resemblance  to  the 
robin  redbreast  of  Europe,  with  which  our  forefathers  were 


92  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

familiar,  and  while  in  a  measure  this  was  correct  it  was  not 
sufficient.  This  illustrates  how  little  we  know  about  the  com- 
mon things  about  us.  Everybody  ought  to  know  that  the  bill 
of  the  robin  is  yellow,  and  I  ought  to  have  been  able  to  tell 
the  boy  the  name  robin  is  from  rubeo,  meaning  red,  the  dis- 
tinctive color  of  the  European  robin,  and  in  this  connection 
have  told  him  some  of  the  legends  about  the  naming  of  that 
bird.  For  instance  the  legend,  that  after  Jesus  had  been  nailed 
to  the  cross;  a  robin  timidly  alighted  on  one  of  the  extended 
arms  of  that  cruel  instrument  of  death.  With  its  wings,  it 
tried  to  wipe  away  the  blinding  sweat  and  blood  from  the  face 
of  Jesus,  while  with  its  beak,  it  tried  to  pluck  away  one  of  the 
thorns  which  were  piercing  his  forehead.  While  doing  so  a 
single  drop  of  blood  fell  on  the  breast  of  the  pitying  little  gray 
bird,  and  thus  gave  to  the  world  the  robin  redbreast.  And  to 
it  Jesus  said:  "Blessed  be  thou,  little  bird,  which  sharest  my 
sorrows.  My  joy  accompany  thee  everywhere.  Thine  eggs 
shall  be  blue  as  the  sky  above;  thou  shalt  be  the  'Bird  of  God, 
bearer  of  good  tidings.'  " 

As  a  standard  of  measurement  for  other  birds  the  robin 
is  ten  inches  long.  The  head  and  throat  of  the  adult  male  are 
black  with  a  slight  ring  of  white  around  the  eyes  and  streaks 
of  like  color  under  the  throat ;  the  upper  parts  of  the  body,  in- 
cluding the  wings  and  tail  are  slightly  brown ;  the  tail  when 
widely  spread  shows  a  tip  of  white  on  each  feather ;  the  under 
parts  of  the  body  are  chestnut,  except  the  under  tail  coverts 
and  the  abdomen  which  are  white;  the  legs  and  feet  are  dark 
brown.  The  adult  female  is  smaller  than  the  male,  and  her 
plumage  is  much  lighter  or  of  a  grayish  color.  The  young  are 
conspicuously  streaked  and  spotted  with  black  and  gray,  and 
in  this  respect  show  their  relationship  to  the  thrushes. 

The  robin,  as  its  common  name  indicates,  is  an  American 
bird,  and  as  its  scientific  name  indicates,  is  a  migrant.  Its 
range  is  east  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  extends  from  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico  to  Labrador.  Audubon  recounts  that  the  first 
land  bird  he  saw  when  he  stepped  upon  the  rugged  shores  of 
Labrador,  was  the  robin,  and  its  joyful  notes  were  the  first  to 
salute  his  ears.  This,  he  says,  was  at  a  time  when  large  patches 
of  snow  still  dappled  the  surface  of  that  bleak  country,  and  al- 


The  American  Robin  93 

though  vegetation  was  partially  renewed,  the  chilliness  of  the 
air  was  peculiarly  penetrating.  Usually  the  spring  migration 
of  the  robin  begins  near  the  first  of  February  and  the  birds 
become  common  in  that  month  within  a  few  days  after  the 
first  migrants  are  noticed. 

In  the  last  chapter  I  said  that  the  migration  of  the  birds  is 
probably  the  most  interesting  subject  connected  with  the  study 
of  the  birds.  One  of  the  facts  connected  with  their  migration 
is  that  with  many  species,  the  males  precede  the  females.  I 
have  never  seen  any  explanation  for  this  and  I  know  of  none. 
In  my  home  city  during  the  last  week  in  January  I  saw  a  flock 
of  male  robins  that  must  have  had  a  thousand  birds  in  it.  They 
tarried  about  a  fortnight,  and  during  that  time  fed  on  hack- 
berries  which  they  came  to  in  the  morning  and  feasted  upon 
them  during  the  day.  When  evening  came  they  flew  to  a  roost 
northeast  of  the  city.  After  their  feasting  and  rest,  the  major 
part  of  the  flock  passed  on  to  the  north.  Those  that  remained 
distributed  themselves  throughout  the  city  and  waiting,  sang 
and  watched  for  the  coming  of  the  females. 

"So  lie  sings  but  ever  watches 

That  his  lady  he  may  see, 
And  his  voice,  on  her  arrival, 

Shows  a  tone  of  ecstacy; 
'Now,  dear  love,  at  last  you're  near  me; 
Ah,  my  heart  did  greatly  fear  me! 
Cheer  up,  cheer  up, 
Julia  Tealeaf 
What  a  relief!" 

From  Audubon's  account  of  finding  the  robin  so  early  in 
Labrador,  we  would  conclude  that  they  travel  northward  faster 
than  the  opening  of  spring.  But  in  his  paper  on  migration, 
Mr.  Cooke  says,  "The  robin  as  a  species  migrates  north  more 
slowly,  than  the  coming  of  the  spring  season ;  it  occupies  sev- 
enty-eight days  for  its  trip  of  3,000  miles  from  Iowa  to  Alaska, 
while  spring  covers  the  distance  in  sixty-eight  days.  But  it 
does  not  follow  that  any  individual  bird  moves  northward  at 
this  leisurely  pace.  The  first  that  reach  a  given  locality  in  the 
spring  are  likely  to  remain  there  to  rest  and  the  advance  of 
the  migration  line  must  wait  the  arrival  of  other  birds  from 


94  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

still  farther  north.  Therefore  each  robin  undoubtedly  migrates 
at  a  faster  rate  than  the  apparent  movement  of  his  species  as  a 
whole,  and  does  not  fall  behind  the  advancing  season.  This  is 
true  of  most  if  not  all,  of  the  other  seemingly  slow  migrants. 
Late  and  rapid  journeys  of  this  kind  offer  certain  advantages ; 
fewer  storms  are  encountered,  the  mortality  rate  is  lowered, 
food  is  more  plentiful  along  the  way,  and  the  birds  reach  the 
nesting  site  full  of  energy,  bubbling  over  with  song,  and  in 
good  condition  to  assume  the  cares  and  labors  of  home  build- 
ing and  brood  raising."  The  robin  winters  sparringly  in  shel- 
tered localities  to  about  40  degrees  north,  but  the  great  body  of 
the  birds  spend  the  winter  months  in  the  territory  between  36 
degrees  north  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  In  their  winter  homes  in 
the  southland  the  bird  is  regarded  as  a  tender  morsel  to  be 
made  an  integral  part  of  a  stew  or  pot  pie.  In  Tennessee  are 
large  tracts  of  cedars,  the  berries  of  which  serve  to  attract 
myriads  of  robins  in  the  winter.  It  is  said  that  one  small 
hamlet  in  this  district  sends  to  market  annually  about  120,000 
birds. 

Robins  breed  throughout  their  extensive  range  north  of  a 
line  running  through  Kansas  and  Virginia,  excepting  the  ex- 
treme northern  Arctic  regions.  In  the  Middle  West  they  usu- 
ally begin  nest  building  during  the  first  half  of  April.  The  nest 
is  built  of  twigs,  grass,  strings,  paper  fibres  with  much  mud 
lined  with  fine  grass,  and  is  a  bulky  affair.  One  that  was  built 
in  a  maple  in  front  of  Elmhurst  had  dangling  from  it  a  long 
white  ribbon,  and  a  friend  told  me  about  another  that  had  a 
lace  handkerchief  for  its  foundation.  It  requires  about  a  week 
to  build  the  nest  and  they  are  most  generally  found  either  on 
the  branch  or  in  a  crotch  of  a  tree,  but  frequently  in  other  odd 
places.  When  a  boy  I  found  many  of  them  on  the  flat  rails  of 
our  worm  fences.  At  Somerleaze  we  have  had  one  in  the  eaves 
trough  to  the  carriage  house  and  another  on  the  cross  railing 
of  our  veranda.  A  clutch  of  eggs  ranges  from  three  to  six  and 
they  are  of  the  color  known  as  robin's  egg  blue.  One  egg, 
usually,  is  laid  each  day.  About  thirteen  days  are  required  for 
incubation,  and  the  young  robins  remain  in  the  nest  twelve  or 
thirteen  days.  Two  broods  are  reared  in  each  year,  and  occa- 
sionally three.  The  parent  birds  are  very  devoted  to  their 


The  American  Robin  95 

young  and  continue  to  feed  them  for  sometime  after  they  have 
left  their  nest.  In  our  city  I  remember  to  have  seen  four 
young  ones,  seemingly  larger  than  their  mother,  following  her 
about  and  most  piteously  begging  her  for  food,  and  how  hard 
she  did  work  for  them  ! 

It  has  been  my  privilege  to  hear  many  distinguished  sing- 
ers, and  the  songs  of  these  have  touched  my  heart  and  I  hope 
have  made  a  better  man  of  me,  but  none  of  them  has  left  with 
me  a  sweeter  and  more  delightful  memory  than  the  song  of  the 
robin.  I  was  returning  home  from  my  office  one  evening 
through  a  spring  shower.  The  clouds  were  breaking  away  in 
the  west  and  here  and  there  the  sun  was  shining  through  their 
rifts.  To  my  right  on  the  topmost  bough  of  a  large  maple 
tree,  a  robin  with  his  head  uplifted  to  heaven  was  singing  in 
the  rain.  Enchanted  I  stopped  to 

"Listen  to  that  soaring  strain! 
It  is  the  robin  in  the  rain. 
Sitting  there  aloft,  aloof, 
Pouring  from  his  throbbing  throat, 
Note  upon  ecstatic  note; 
Rapture  in  the  swift  refrain — 
Robin  in  the  rain." 

No  other  bird  has  been  written  about  more  and  is  more 
warmly  welcomed  and  loved  than  the  robin.  This  is  due  to 
the  fact  that  he  lives  near  to  our  houses,  is  our  most  familiar 
bird,  and  is  the  bird  of  varied  and  constant  song.  It  is  his 
morning  song  that  welcomes  the  rising  sun  and  his  evening 
song  that  puts  it  to  rest  beyond  the  western  horizon.  I  am 
ever  reminded  by  him  that  Longfellow  says : 

"Think,  every  morning  when  the  sun  peeps  through 

The  dim,  leaf-latticed  windows  of  the  grove, 
How  jubilant  the  happy  birds  renew 

Their  old  melodious  madrigals  of  love! 
And  when  you  think  of  this,  remember,  too, 

'Tis  always  morning,  somewhere,  and  above 
The  wakening  continents,  from  shore  to  shore, 

Somewhere  the  birds  are  singing  evermore." 

At  Buzzard's  Roost  at  the  first  faint  coming  of  the  light, 
the  anthem  begins  with  the  crowing  of  the  roosters  in  the  far 


96  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

east.  This  comes  nearer  and  presently  those  in  the  barn  yard 
join  in  the  chorus,  and  after  they  have  had  their  crow,  it  passes 
on  to  the  west,  becoming  fainter  and  finally  dies  away.  Then 
the  robins  begin  in  a  subdued  tone, 

"As  if  they  were  talking  in  their  sleep, 
At  three  o'clock  in  the  morning." 

Many  interesting  stories  have  been  written  about  the 
robin,  growing  out  of  the  strong  hold  that  it  has  upon  the  af- 
fections of  the  people  and  the  affection  that  the  birds  have 
for  each  other,  and  on  account  of  their  intelligence.  It  is  told  of 
Corliss,  the  famous  engin^  builder,  that  at  one  time  he  was 
working  on  a  contract,  under  heavy  penalty  to  supply  a  steam 
pumping  apparatus  and  power  house  within  a  specified  time. 
In  blasting  and  clearing  the  necessary  place  for  the  founda- 
tions of  the  building,  a  robin's  nest  was  discovered  in  a  small 
tree  within  the  space.  When  Mr.  Corliss  learned  of  this  he 
had  the  work  transferred  to  the  other  side  of  the  square  so 
as  not  to  disturb  the  bird.  But  it  proved  that  when  the  work- 
men got  clear  around  and  back  to  the  robin's  nest,  the  young 
birds  were  still  not  quite  ready  to  fly.  After  looking  at  the 
little  tree  with  its  nest  and  little  birds  high  in  its  branches 
and  thinking  about  what  to  do  with  them,  he  directed  the  men 
to  support  the  tree  carefully,  saw  through  it  and  then  carry 
it  in  an  upright  position  to  a  safe  distance  and  stick  it  into 
the  ground  with  proper  support.  And  thus  the  little  robins 
were  saved  and  flew  away  together  after  a  few  more  days. 

My  fellow  townsman,  Mr.  H.  H.  Lee,  tells  a  good  story 
about  the  robins  that  had  nested  in  his  back  yard  for  thirty 
years.  He  and  his  wife  esteemed  them  as  favorite  tenants, 
for  they  richly  paid  for  their  tenancy.  The  birds  had  built 
their  nest  quite  close  to  the  house,  and  it  attracted  the  at- 
tention of  a  boy  with  a  devil  sling.  The  mother  bird  was  on 
the  nest  and  the  slinger  struck  her,  and  broke  her  wing.  She 
fell  to  the  ground  and  was  unable  to  fly  back  again  to  her  nest. 
The  male  bird  was  greatly  distressed.  He  hopped  about  her, 
making  piteous  cries  and  evidently  was  unable  to  understand 
the  situation.  Mrs.  Lee  picked  up  the  wounded  bird,  mended 
its  wing  with  surgeon's  plaster  and  then  placed  it  in  a  cage 


The  American  Robin  97 

where  the  male  bird  could  visit  his  mate.  There  were  eggs  in 
the  nest  and  the  mother  was  unable  to  attend  to  her  maternal 
duties.  There  was  a  new  and  pressing  responsibility  on  the 
father  of  this  prospective  family.  He  was  equal  to  the  emer- 
gency. Evidently  he  had  done  some  thinking.  He  saw  that 
the  mother  was  getting  on  as  well  as  could  be  expected. 
What  did  he  do?  That  bright  breasted  robin  took  her  place 
on  the  nest  and  hatched  out  the  brood.  They  could  see  him 
from  day  to  day,  feeding  the  young  robins  and  from  time  to 
time  he  would  come  to  the  cage  and  converse  with  the  mother 
bird  evidently  asking  and  receiving  advice  as  to  the  manner 
of  bringing  up  the  little  ones.  Many  times  did  they  see  him 
come  and  bring  to  the  wounded  bird  a  big  fat  worm  and  pass 
it  to  her  through  the  bars  of  the  cage.  It  was  a  pretty  picture 
of  conjugal  affection.  When  the  wing  was  thoroughly  healed 
Mrs.  Lee  released  Madam  Robin  and  she  joined  her  faithful 
spouse  and  the  little  ones. 

I  do  not  like  the  picture  of  the  robin  in  the  Year  Book  of 
the  United  States  Department  of  Agriculture,  and  the  many 
that  have  been  copied  after  it,  which  depicts  him  as  tugging 
away  at  an  angle  worm.  They  tend  to  create  the  impression 
that  the  sole  occupation  of  these  birds  is  to  destroy  angle 
worms.  For  his  meat  diet,  the  robin  not  only  eats  angle 
worms  but  bugs,  flies,  spiders,  grasshoppers,  crickets,  cater- 
pillars, the  larvae  of  the  March  fly,  cut  worms  and  army 
worms.  At  once  it  will  be  noticed  that  most  if  not  all  of  these 
are  destructive  pests.  They  are  accused  of  taking  fruit  but  it 
has  been  demonstrated  that  less  than  five  per  cent,  of  their 
food  consists  of  cultivated  fruit.  With  this  good  record  in  his 
favor,  who  is  it  that  would  banish  him  from  the  face  of  the 
earth?  Without  his  sweet  notes,  our  mornings  would  be  "like 
a  landscape  without  the  rose,  or  a  summer  evening  sky  with- 
out its  tints." 


21 


BLUEBIRD. 

766.     Sialiasialis.     (Linn). 

Lifesr/.\ 


CHAPTER  XVII. 


April  16— April  22. 

THE  BLUEBIRD. 

Order — Passeres.  Suborder — Oscines. 

Family — Turdidse  Subfamily — Turdinse. 

Genus — Sialia.  Species — Sialia  sialis. 

Length — 5.70  to  7.00;  wing,  3.90  to  4.15 ;  tail,  2.60  to  2.90. 
Migration — North,  February ;  south,  November. 

"Winged  lute  that  we  call  a  bluebird. 

You  blend  in  a  silver  strain 
The  sound  of  the  laughing  waters, 

The  patter  of  spring's  sweet  rain, 
The  voice  of  the  wind,  the  sunshine, 

And  fragrance  of  blossoming  things, 
Ah,  you  are  a  poem  of  April, 

That  God  endowed  with  wings." 

The  bluebird  is  a  member  of  the  family  Turdidge  and  a 
full  cousin  of  the  robin — the  two  standing  highest  in  the 
classification  of  our  birds  and  are  the  most  familiar  of  our 
native  birds  in  the  Middle  West.  "It  is  worthy  of  remark," 
says  Mr.  John  Burroughs,  "that  among  British  birds  there 
is  no  blue  bird.  The  cerulian  tint  seems  rarer  among  the 
feathered  tribes  there  than  here.  On  this  continent  there  are  at 
least  three  species  of  the  common  bluebird,  while  in  all  our 
woods  there  is  the  bluejay  and  the  indigo  bird — the  latter  so 
intensely  blue  as  to  justify  its  name.  There  is  also  the  blue 
grosbeak,  not  much  behind  the  indigo-bird  in  intensity  of 
color  and  among  our  warblers  the  blue  tint  is  very  common." 
To  these  might  have  been  added  the  belted  kingfisher,  the 

99 


ioo  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

blue-gray  gnatcatcher  and  the  great  and  little  blue  herons,  and 
perhaps  others. 

The  adult  male  bluebird  above,  including  the  wings  and 
tail  is  of  a  bright  blue  color;  throat,  neck,  breast  and  sides, 
partially  under  the  wings,  chestnut;  belly  and  vent,  white;  bill 
and  legs  are  black.  The  upper  parts  of  the  female  are  grayish ; 
the  other  parts  are  like  those  of  the  male,  but  duller.  The 
bluebird  is  said  to  bear  a  strong  resemblance  to  the  English 
robin  redbreast,  being  similar  in  form,  having  a  red  breast 
and  short  tail-feathers,  and  with  only  this  difference,  that  the 
one  is  blue  above  where  the  other  is  olive  colored.  Because 
of  this  resemblance  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  called  it  the  Blue 
Robin.  The  legend  of  its  creation  is  that, 

"When  God  had  made  a  host  of  them, 
One  little  flower  still  lacked  a  stem 

To  hold  the  blossom  blue; 
So  into  it  he  breathed  a  song 
And   suddenly   with   petals   strong 

As  wings,  away  it  flew." 

The  bluebird  is  a  bird  of  North  America  whose  range  ex- 
tends north  from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  through  the  eastern  part 
of  the  United  States  to  Nova  Scotia,  Ontario  and  Manitoba 
and  west  to  the  Rocky  Mountains.  There  are  two  sub-species 
of  it  namely,  the  western  bluebird,  sialis  mexicanus  oci- 
dentalis,  found  on  the  Pacific  coast,  and  the  mountain  blue- 
bird, sialis  artica,  found  in  the  western  United  States.  In  the 
southern  part  of  its  range  the  bluebird,  silia  sialis,  is  a  resident; 
in  the  northern  a  migrant.  It  comes  north  very  early  and  re- 
turns south  very  late.  It  is  called  the  harbinger  of  spring. 
I  have  seen  them  in  February,  before  the  snow  had  dis- 
appeared. 

"In  the  spring, 
Nay  in  the  bluster  of  March,  or  haply  before, 

The  bluebird  comes,  and  a-wing 

Or  alight,  seems  evermore 

For  song  that  is  swift  and  soft. 
His  footprints  oft 

Make  fretwork  along  the  snow, 

When  the  weather  is  bleak  ablow, 
When  his  hardihood  by  cold  is  pinched  full  sore." 


The  Bluebird 


The  males  precede  the  females  in  their  migration  north. 
Almost  immediately  after  the  arrival  of  the  females,  house 
hunting  is  commenced.  This  means  a  search  for  a  cavity  or 
hole  of  some  kind.  It  may  be  a  knot  hole  or  a  deserted  wood- 
pecker's nest,  and  generally  these  are  sought  for  in  an  orchard, 
the  outer  skirts  of  the  forest  or  the  stake  of  a  worm  fence 
along  a  highway.  At  Somerleaze  for  many  years  a  pair  of 
them  have  nested  in  a  woodpecker's  hole  in  a  fence  stake, 
and  here  I  have  had  a  good  opportunity  to  study  them.  It 
was  here  that  I  first  became  convinced  that  the  English 
sparrows  fight  the  bluebirds  and  destroy  their  eggs  and  nests. 
One  evening  the  bluebirds  seemed  much  distressed  and  I 
hunted  for  the  cause  of  it  and  caught  a  cock  sparrow  in  the 
very  act  of  destroying  the  nest  and  at  the  foot  of  the  fence 
stake  were  the  perforated  eggs  that  had  been  tossed  out  of  it. 
If  not  prevented  by  the  English  sparrows,  the  bluebirds  will 
take  possession  of  boxes  put  up  for  them  about  our  homes. 
When  I  was  about  five  years  old  my  father  moved  from  the 
city  to  the  farm,  and  one  of  the  first  things  he  did  was  to  put 
up  a  box  on  a  pole  in  front  of  our  cabin  home.  A  pair  of  blue- 
birds took  possession  of  it,  and  year  after  year,  they  nested 
there.  They  were  the  first  wild  birds  that  I  became  acquainted 
with,  and  with  Maurice  Thompson,  I  can  say : 

"From  childhood  I  have  nursed  a  faith 

In  bluebirds'  songs  and  winds  of  spring; 
They  tell  me  after  frost  and  death 

There  comes  a  time  of  blossoming; 
And  after  snow  and  cutting  sleet, 

The  cold,  stern  mood  of  nature  yields 
To  tender  warmth,  when  bare  pink  feet 

Of  children  press  her  green  fields." 

The  nest  of  the  bluebird  is  made  of  grass  and  rootlets. 
As  a  rule,  three  to  six  blue  eggs  are  laid  in  it.  Occasionally 
white  eggs  are  laid,  and  when  this  is  done  the  entire  clutch 
is  of  that  color.  Incubation  is  attended  to  by  the  female,  and 
while  she  is  attending  to  it,  the  male  is  ever  present  and  at- 
tentive to  her,  and  as  Lowell  says, 

"Shifting  his  load  of  song 
From  post  to  post  along  the  cheerless  fence." 


102  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

The  young  leave  the  nest  in  fifteen  or  sixteen  days.  Two 
broods  are  reared  during  the  season,  and  sometimes  three. 
The  male  takes  an  active  part  in  feeding  the  young,  and  it  is 
said  that  as  soon  as  the  young  of  the  first  brood  are  ready  to 
fly  they  are  taken  care  of  by  him,  while  the  female  gives  at- 
tention to  the  incubation  of  another  family 

Alexander  Wilson,  the  Father  of  American  Ornithology 
loved  the  bluebird  and  "regretted  that  no  pastoral  muse  had 
yet  arisen  in  the  Western  World  to  do  justice  to  his  name, 
and  to  endear  him  to  us  still  more  by  the  tenderness  of  verse, 
as  has  been  done  to  his  representative  in  Britian,  the  robin 
redbreast."  This  inspired  him  to  write  the  first  bluebird 
poem,  and  though  many  have  been  written  since,  none  that 
I  have  ever  seen  excels  it.  Of  its  worth  and  departure  he 
wrote : 

"He  flits  through  the  orchard,  he  visits  each  tree, 
The  red  flowering  peach,  and  the  apple's  sweet  blossoms; 

He  snaps  up  destroyers  wherever  they  be, 
And  siezes  the  catiffs  that  lurk  in  their  bosoms; 

He  drags  the  vile  grub  from  the  corn  it  devours, 
The  worms  from  the  webs  where  they  riot  and  welter: 

His  songs  and  his  services  freely  are  ours, 
And  all  that  he  asks  is — in  summer  a  shelter." 

"The  plowman  is  pleased  when  he  gleans  in  his  train, 
Now  searching  the  furrows,  now  mounting  to  cheer  him; 

The  gardener  delights  in  his  sweet  simple  strain, 
And  leans  on  his  spade  to  survey  and  to  hear  him; 

The  slow  lingering  schoolboys  forget  they'll  be  chid, 
While  gazing  as   he  warbles  before   them 

In  mantel  of  sky  blue  and  bosom  so  red, 
That  each  little  loiterer  seems  to  adore  him." 

"When  all  the  gay  scenes  of  the  summer  are  o'er, 
And  autumn  slow  enters  so  silent  and  sallow, 

And  millions  of  warblers  that  charmed  us  before, 
Have  fled  in  the  train  of  the  sun-seeking  swallow, — 

The  bluebird  forsaken,  yet  true  to  his  home, 
Still  lingers  and  looks  for  a  milder  to-morrow; 

Till  forced  by  the  horrors  of  winter  to  roam, 
He  sings  his  adieu  in  a  lone  note  of  sorrow." 

And  thus  in  verse  the  true  story  of  the  bluebird  is  told.  So 
far  as  is  known,  it  has  not  been  accused  of  stealing  fruit  or  of 


The  Bluebird  103 


preying  upon  the  crops.  It  has  been  demonstrated  that  sev- 
enty-six per  cent,  of  its  food  consists  of  insects  and  their  allies, 
and  most  of  these  are  more  or  less  harmful.  So  far  as  its 
vegetable  food  is  concerned,  the  bluebird  is  positively  harm- 
less. As  a  songster,  he  does  not  equal  his  cousin,  the  robin. 
"His  notes  are  few  and  not  greatly  varied,  though  sweetly 
and  plaintively  modulated  and  never  loud.  He  does  not 
bluster.  In  the  springtime  his  is  an  oft  repeated  strain,  "tru-al- 
ly,  tru-al-ly,  tru-al-ly.'  " 

"Listen  awhile  and  you'll  hear  what  he's  saying, 
Up  in  the  apple  tree  swing  and  swaying, 
Dear  little  blossoms  down  under  the  snow, 
You  must  be  weary  of  winter,  I  know; 
Hark  while  I  sing  you  a  message  of  cheer, 
Summer  is  coming  and  springtime  is  here!" 

In  the  autumn  they  gather  in  flocks  and  seem  reluctantly 
to  be  making  ready  for  their  southern  journey.  Even 
after  the  leaves  have  fallen  and  into  October  and  November 
he' "still  lingers  and  looks  for  a  milder  to-morrow  till,  forced 
by  the  horrors  of  winter  to  roam,  he  sings  his  adieu  in  a  love 
note  of  sorrow,"  which  as  Mr.  Chapman  says,  seems  to  be 
"far-away,  far-away."  Then  with  Edmund  Clarence  Stedman, 
we  inquire, 

"Whither   away,   bluebird, 

Whither  away? 

The  blast  is  chill,  yet  in  the  upper  sky 
Thou  still  canst  find  the  color  of  thy  wing, 

The   hue   of  May. 

Warbler,  why  speed  thy  southern  flight?  ah,  why, 
Thou,  too,  whose  song  first  told  us  of  the  spring? 

Whither    away?" 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 


April  23— April  29. 

THE  SONG  SPARROW. 

Order — Passeres.  Suborder — Oscines. 

Family — Fringillidse  Genus — Melospiza. 

Species — Melospiza  fasciata. 

Length — 6.00  to  6.75 ;  wing,  2.45  to  2.80 ;  tail,  2.58  to  3.02. 
Migration — North,  March ;  south,  November. 

"By  the  road   in  early  spring, 
Always  hopefully  you  sing; 
It  may  rain  or  it  may  snow, 
Sun  may  shine  or  wind  may  blow, 
Still  your  dainty  strain  we  hear — 

'Cheer — cheer — 

Never,  never  fear, 

May  will  soon  be  here.' 
Darling  little  prophet  that  you  are!" 

In  his  Birds  of  North  America,  Mr.  Robert  Ridgeway 
describes  one  hundred  and  forty-four  species  and  sub-species 
of  sparrows.  These  are  small  birds  of  the  ground  or  not 
far  from  it  that  find  elevated  perches  for  rest  and  song.  As 
a  rule,  they  are  brown  and  gray  with  striped  upperparts  and 
lighter  colors  beneath.  The  males  and  females  are  alike  in  ap- 
pearance. Their  neutral  colors  are  a  means  of  protection  to 
them  in  the  exposed  situation  which  they  inhabit.  Their 
flight  is  labored.  They  have  stout,  conical  bills  admirably 
adapted  to  crushing  weed  seeds,  and  because  of  this  they  are 
among  our  most  useful  birds. 

105 


io6  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

The  mandibles  of  the  song  sparrow  are  of  a  horn  color; 
crown  of  head,  rufous,  divided  in  the  middle  by  a  dark  gray 
streak ;  iris,  brown ;  line  over  the  eye,  light  gray  stripe  back 
of  the  eye  and  one  on  each  side  of  the  maxillary  stripe,  rufous 
brown ;  other  upper  parts,  rusty  grayish,  streaked  with  brown 
and  black ;  wings  without  bars ;  tail  feathers,  rufous  brown, 
above  with  the  middle  feathers  blackish  along  their  shafts; 
breast  with  broad  wedge-shaped  streaks  of  black  and  brown, 
which  often  unite  and  form  a  large  dark  spot  in  the  center; 
underneath  parts  gray,  shading  to  white,  heavily  streaked  with 
darkest  brown;  tarsi  pale  brown,  toes  darker. 

The  range  of  the  song  sparrow  extends  north  from  the 
Gulf  States  through  the  eastern  and  middle  states  to  Manitoba 
and  Nova  Scotia  and  west  to  the  base  of  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains. Some  of  the  birds  remain  in  the  north  all  of  the  winter, 
but  the  greater  portion  of  them  migrate.  They  winter  from 
southern  Illinois  and  Indiana  to  Massachusetts  southward  to 
the  Gulf  States  and  breed  from  Virginia  northward  to  the  fur 
countries.  They  mate  about  the  middle  of  March  and  build 
their  nests  in  April.  The  nest  is  built  on  the  ground  or  near  to 
it  in  a  bush,  and  is  constructed  of  coarse  grass,  dead  leaves  and 
strips  of  bark  and  is  lined  with  finer  grass  and  hair.  In  it  are 
laid  four  or  five  greenish  or  bluish-white  eggs,  varying  greatly 
in  their  markings,  which  range  from  brown  to  reddish,  and 
lavender  to  purple.  Two  and  sometimes  three  broods  are 
reared  in  a  year.  The  female  attends  to  the  incubation.  She 
is  very  careful  about  concealing  her  nest,  and  does  not  fly 
directly  to  and  from  it  but  approaches  and  leaves  it  by  run- 
ning close  to  the  ground  for  some  distance.  During  in- 
cubation the  male  is  very  attentive  to  his  spouse.  He  seems  to 
understand  that  hers  is  a  life  of  much  drudgery  and  to  be 
anxious  to  do  all  that  he  can  to  make  it  as  light  and  sweet 
as  possible. 

"He  sits  on  a  twig  and  singeth  clear 
A  song  that  overfloweth  with  cheer; 

'Love!    Love!    Love! 
Let   us   be    happy,   my   love. 

Sing  of  cheer:' " 


The  beautiful  rose-bowered  home  of  a  song  sparrow 


Kellogg 


The  Song  Sparrow  107 

They  have  no  quarrels  or  disagreements,  nor  do  they  care 
to  be  divorced.  They,  too,  are  a  world  to  themselves  and  in 
that  world  peace,  joy  and  love  dwell.  He  may  be  known  by 
his  nervous  flight,  in  which  his  long  tail  is  constantly  jerked 
and  by  his  shyness,  which  prompts  him  on  the  least  alarm 
to  retreat  into  cover. 

As  I  have  elsewhere  said,  Big  Branch  meandered  its 
way  through  my  father's  farm.  Its  banks  were  covered  with 
low-growing  willows,  which  were  the  homes  of  the  cecropia 
moth,  the  great  golden  striped  spider  and  the  song  sparrow. 
I  was  not  then  acquainted  with  the  cecropia  moth,  but 
prompted  by  curiosity  and  a  desire  to  learn  concerning  it, 
often  gathered  the  cocoons  and  examined  them — and  now  after 
more  than  three  score  years  have  passed,  I  do  the  same  thing, 
for  the  life  history  of  this  moth  is  most  interesting  and  well 
worthy  of  investigation.  Often  did  I  watch  the  spiders  weav- 
ing their  wonderful  webs  in  which  to  catch  their  quarry ;  and 
this  is  a  matter  of  wonder  to  me  yet.  Many  an  evening  have 
I  seen  the  smaller  kinds  weaving  their  webs  in  the  honey- 
suckle about  the  veranda  at  Somerleaze.  What  is  more  won- 
derful than  the  skill  of  this  tiny  workman?  But  that  which 
added  the  most  joy  and  peace  to  the  country  lad's  life  was  the 
joyous  music  of  the  song  sparrows  in  the  willows.  Many 
times  have  I  stopped  at  the  end  of  the  furrows  to  listen  to 

"That  song  of  perfect  trust,  of  perfect  cheer, 
Courageous,  constant,  free  of  doubt  or  fear." 

Excepting  the  cardinal,  the  song  sparrow  is  our  earliest, 
latest  and  most  persistent  singer.  The  song  is  varied  and 
there  is  a  difference  in  the  quality  and  volume  of  the  voices 
of  different  individuals.  In  Wood  Notes  Wild,  Mr.  Cheney 
says,  "I  have  heard  more  than  twenty  songs  of  this  sparrow, 
and  have  heard  him  in  many  other  forms."  One  of  the  songs 
of  one  on  our  lawn  at  Somerleaze  seems  to  be  "ze-ze-ze-ze-, 
sweet,  sweet."  Others  are  quite  good  imitators  of  the  im- 
ported canary  and  are  delightfully  sweet  to  the  ear.  I  shall 
never  forget  a  tramp  made  out  into  the  country  with  a  young 
friend  of  mine  the  last  week  in  February.  As  we  were  wend- 
ing our  way  homeward  just  before  sunset,  and  it  was  the  most 


io8  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

gorgeous  sunset  that  I  have  ever  seen,  we  were  regaled  with 
the  song  of  one  of  these  birds  from  the  brush  pile  by  the 
roadside,  and  during  that  year  I  continued  to  hear  their  songs 
until  in  November,  and  since  then  I  have  heard  them  as  late 
as  in  December.  They  are  among  the  very  first  birds  to  com- 
mence singing  in  the  morning,  and  they  sing  even  later  than 
the  vesper  sparrows  in  the  evening.  Now  that  I  am  growing 
old  I  am  often  reminded  of  and  feel  in  sympathy  with  Celia 
Thaxter,  that  lover  of  birds,  when  she  wrote : 

"In  this  sweet,  tranquil  afternoon   of  spring, 
While  the  low  sun  declines  in  the  clear  west, 

I  sit  and  hear  the  blithe  song  sparrow  sing 
His  strain  of  rapture  not  to  be  suppressed; 

Pondering  life's  problem  strange,  while  death  draws  near, 
I  listen  to  his  dauntless  song  of  cheer." 

The  great  number  of  these  sparrows  is  surprising  and 
notwithstanding  the  many  mishaps  which  befall  them,  they 
seem  to  be  steadily  increasing.  Each  year  during  their  stay 
with  us,  the  Fall  Creek  valleys  are  ever  full  of  their  soft 
sweet  music. 

"Sweet  and  true  are  the  notes  of  his  song; 
Sweet — and  yet  always  full  and  strong; 
True — and  yet  they  are  never  sad; 
Serene  with  the  peace  that  maketh  glad." 

While  the  sparrows  are  noted  as  seed  eaters  they  do  not 
by  any  means  confine  themselves  to  a  vegetable  diet.  During 
the  summer,  especially  in  the  breeding  season,  they  eat  many 
insects,  and  feed  their  young  largely  upon  the  same  food. 
Prof.  Beal  has  shown  that  about  one-third  of  the  food  of  the 
chipping  and  song  sparrow  consists  of  insects,  comprising 
many  injurious  beetles,  sudi  as  snout  and  leaf  beetles,  many 
grasshoppers,  wasps  and  bugs.  On  the  whole  their  food  con- 
sists mainly  of  the  injurious  species.  Mr.  Nehrling,  the  emin- 
ent ornithologist,  considers  the  song  sparrow  one  of  our  most 
useful  birds  from  the  eagerness  with  which  it  sets  upon  in- 
jurious caterpillars,  grasshoppers  and  leaf-eating  beetles,  to 
say  nothing  about  the  cabbage  worms  and  moths  it  destroys ; 


The  Song  Sparrow  109 

while  the  persistency  of  its  search  for  rose  bugs,  cut-worms 
and  all  kinds  of  beetles  rivals  that  of  the  most  ardent  ento- 
mologist. The  canker-worm  is  a  favorite  food  with  them. 

"Grudge  not  the  wheat 
Which  hunger  forces  birds  to  eat; 
Your  blinded  eyes,  worse  foes  to  you, 
Can't  see  the  good  which  sparrows  do. 
Did  not  poor  birds  with  watching  rounds, 
Pick  up  the  insects  from  your  grounds, 
Did  they  not  tend  your  growing  grain, 
You  then  might  sow  to  reap  in  vain." 


s. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 


April  30 — May  6. 

THE  WOOD  THRUSH. 

Order — Passeres.  Suborder — Oscines. 

Family — Turdidas  Subfamily — Turdinae. 

Genus — Turdus.  Sub  genus — Hylocichla. 

Species — Turdus  mustelinus. 

Length — 7.50  to  8.25 ;  wing,  4.10  to  4.50;  tail,  3.00  to  3.30. 
Migration — North,  April;  south, September. 

"He  has  a  coat  of  cinnamon  brown, 
The  brightest  on  his  head  and  crown, 
A  very  low  cut  vest  of  white 
That  shines  like  satin  in  the  light, 
And  on  his  breast  a  hundred  spots, 
As  if  he  wore  a  veil  with  dots; 
With  movement  quick  and  full  of  grace, 
The  highbred  manner  of  his  race; 
A  very  prince  of  birds  is  he 
Whose  form  it  is  a  joy  to  see." 

Of  the  three  hundred  species  of  the  family  Turdidse,  com- 
posed of  the  thrushes,  robin  and  bluebird,  about  one  hundred 
and  fifty  belong  to  the  subfamily  Turdinae,  which  is  composed 
of  the  tree  thrushes.  Twelve  of  these  are  found  in  the  United 
States.  As  a  rule,  they  are  found  in  the  woodland  parts  of 
our  country  and  are  strictly  migratory.  They  are  all  vocal, 
and  some,  like  the  wood  thrush,  are  very  fine  songsters.  The 
Darwinian  theory  of  evolution  is  very  generally  accepted  as 

in 


ii2  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

true.  Accordingly,  it  is  believed  that  the  birds  have  descended 
or  rather  ascended  from  reptilian  ancestors.  One  of  the  evi- 
dences of  this  is  the  fact  that  we  find  scales  upon  the  tarsi  and 
toes  of  the  birds,  which  in  some  measure  correspond  with 
those  of  the  reptiles.  Because  of  the  fact  that  the  tarsi  of  the 
thrushes  are  covered  in  front  by  a  single  scale  and  that  they 
have  the  most  perfected  vocal  organs,  a  majority  of  the  scien- 
tists have  placed  them  in  the  highest  rank  of  our  birds.  Mr. 
Frank  Chapman  in  his  Bird  Life  says :  "Without  pausing  to 
discuss  the  value  of  the  characters  on  which  this  classification 
is  made,  there  can  be  no  question  that  from  an  aesthetic  stand- 
point the  thrushes  possess  in  a  greater  degree  than  any  other 
birds  those  qualifications  which  make  an  ideal  bird,"  and  Ma- 
bel Osgood  Wright  most  appropriately  calls  them  The  Silver 
Tongued  Family. 

The  wood  thrush,  a  member  of  this  family,  is  the  largest 
of  our  thrushes  except  the  robin.  In  appearance  the  sexes  are 
alike.  The -bill  of  the  adult  is  of  a  moderate  length,  rather 
stout,  slightly  convex  and  keeled  above,  with  a  sharp  notched 
tip  and  brown  yellowish  base ;  white  ring  around  the  eye, 
which  is  large,  full,  the  pupil  black  and  the  iris  of  a  dark  choc- 
olate color ;  whole  upper  parts  are  of  a  brown  rufous  color 
brightening  into  reddish  on  the  head,  and  inclining  to  an  olive 
on  the  rump  and  tail ;  chin,  white ;  throat  and  breast  white, 
tinged  with  a  light  buff  color,  and  beautifully  marked  with 
pointed  spots  of  black  and  dusky,  running  in  chains  from  the 
sides  of  the  mouth,  and  intersecting  each  other  all  over  the 
breast  to  the  belly  with  the  vent  of  pure  white ;  the  legs  are 
long,  and,  as  well  as  the  claws,  of  a  pale  flesh  color,  or  almost 
transparent.  They  frequent  copses,  groves  of  young  trees  and 
rocky  glens,  particularly  if  there  is  a  stream  of  water  near  by, 
and  with  these  conditions  existing  at  Buzzard's  Roost,  many 
of  them  are  to  be  found  there. 

The  range  of  the  wood  thrush  extends  from  Honduras 
and  the  Bermuda  Islands  north  through  the  eastern  United 
States  to  Quebec  and  west  to  Kansas  and  North  Dakota.  It 
winters  south  from  Florida  and  Texas,  and  breeds  from  Geor- 
gia and  southern  Missouri  north  throughout  its  northern 
range.  They  mate  soon  after  their  arrival  at  the  north.  Their 


The  Wood  Thrush  u3 

nest  may  sometimes  be  found  near  to  the  ground,  but  usually 
is  from  fifteen  to  twenty-five  feet  above  it  in  the  crotch  of  a 
bush  or  upon  the  limb  of  a  tree.  The  nest  is  made  of  leaves, 
weed  stems,  roots,  rags,  strips  of  paper  and  mud.  The  eggs, 
three  to  five  of  which  constitute  a  clutch,  are  blue  like  those 
of  the  robin.  Incubation  lasts  twelve  days  and  the  young  leave 
the  nest  in  about  the  same  length  of  time.  During  the  period 
of  incubation  the  bird  sits  closely  and  will  allow  a  person  to 
approach  within  a  few  feet  of  the  nest.  It  has  been  said  that 
when  large  portions  of  the  country  were  covered  with  dense 
forests,  the  wood  thrush  was  a  very  shy  bird,  and  that  it  was 
difficult  to  get  close  to  it,  but  at  Buzzard's  Roost  we  have  had 
them  to  nest  within  two  hundred  feet  of  the  cottage,  and  to 
alight  in  the  yard  and  eat  with  the  domestic  fowls. 

Professor  Forbes,  who  examined  and  made  a  study 
of  many  of  the  stomachs  of  these  birds,  found  that  seventy-two 
per  cent,  of  their  food  consisted  of  insects,  the  greater  portion 
of  them  being  ground-inhabiting  forms.  One  specimen  had 
stuffed  itself  with  rose-beetles  and  others  had  eaten  large  num- 
bers of  ants  and  crane-flies.  Twenty  per  cent,  of  their  food 
consisted  of  fruits,  much  of  which  were  wild  fruits  obtained 
from  their  haunts. 

But  that  concerning  the  wood  thrush  which  deserves  the 
most  attention  is  its  song.  As  I  have  already  said,  one  of  the 
reasons  why  the  family  of  thrushes  are  classed  as  the  highest 
order  of  our  birds  is  their  gift  of  song;  and  of  this  family,  in 
this  respect,  the  wood  thrush  by  many  is  and  has  been  regard- 
ed as  at  the  head  of  the  list.  It  was  this  that  made  it  the 
favorite  of  Audubon  and  Wilson.  Audubon  says  that  it  was 
its  sweet  notes  that  enlivened  him  in  the  solitary  and  dense 
forest,  at  twilight  and  dawn.  Wilson  says :  "But  at  what- 
ever time  the  wood  thrush  may  arrive,  he  soon  announces  his 
presence  in  the  woods.  With  the  dawn  of  the  succeeding  morn- 
ing, mounting  to  the  top  of  some  tall  tree  that  rises  from  a 
low  thick-shaded  part  of  the  woods,  he  pipes  his  few  but  clear 
and  musical  notes  in  a  kind  of  ecstacy ;  the  prelude,  or  sym- 
phony to  which,  strongly  resembles  the  double  tonguing  of 
a  German  flute,  and  sometimes  the  tinkling  of  a  small  bell ; 
the  whole  song  consists  of  five  or  six  parts,  the  last  note  of 


ii4  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

each  of  which  is  in  such  a  tone  as  to  leave  the  conclusion  evi- 
dently suspended;  the  finale  is  finely  managed  and  with  such 
charming  effect  as  to  sooth  and  tranquilize  the  mind,  and  to 
seem  sweeter  and  mellower  at  each  successive  repetition." 

And  this  recalls  that  some  one  has  said:  "Who  can  de- 
scribe the  song  of  a  bird?  Poets  and  prose  writers  alike  have 
lavished  epithets  on  the  nightengale  and  mocking  bird,  wood 
thrush  and  veery.  Yet  who,  till  he  has  heard  one,  can  imag- 
ine what  its  song  is  like?"  All  that  I  can  say  in  the  attempt 
is,  that  my  wood  thrushes  at  Buzzard's  Roost,  as  the  light  of 
day  is  going  out,  down  over  the  hill  from  the  cabins,  sing  their 
sweet  "Noli-a-e-o-noli-nol-aeolee-lee." 

"From  out  of  the  forest  depths, 

Clear,  sweet,  and  strong, 
Floats  on  the  evening  wind, 

Shy  bird,  thy  flute-like  song." 

I  am  in  accord  with  my  friend  Paul  Mavity  when  he 
writes :  "To  me  the  song  of  the  birds  is  like  a  sweet  prophesy 
of  eternal  life,  a  foretaste  of  heaven,  an  invitation  to  be  worthy 
of  paradisal  joy.  It  is  like  the  poetry  of  young  love  or  of  old 
love  kept  ever  young  by  chastity,  and  is  best  heard  by  the 
ears  of  love  itself.  Come  into  the  woods  with  us  and  listen  to 
the  birds,  and  your  faith  shall  be  strengthened  and  your  peace 
restored."  And  this  is  especially  true  if  we  are  listening  to 
the  wood  thrush,  whose  "calm  restful  song,"  as  Mr.  Chapman 
says,  "rings  through  the  woods  like  a  hymn  of  praise  rising 
pure  and  clear  from  a  thankful  heart.  It  is  a  message  of  hope 
and  good  cheer  in  the  morning,  a  benediction  at  the  close  of 
day,  'come  to  me.'  The  flute-like  opening  notes  are  an  invita- 
tion to  his  haunts ;  a  call  from  nature  to  yield  ourselves  to  the 
ennobling  influences  of  the  forest." 


CHAPTER  XX. 


May  7 — May  13. 

THE  BROWN  THRASHER. 

Order — Passeres.  Suborder — Oscines. 

Family — Troglodytidae  Subfamily — Miminse. 

Genus — Harporhynchus.  Subgenus — Methriopterus. 

Species — Harporhynchus  rufus. 

Length — 10.50  to  12.00;  wing,  4.10  to  4.60;  tail,  5.00  to  5.75. 
Migration — North,  March;  south,  September. 

"Before   the  quick'ning  of  the  grass, 

When  violets  blow. 

And  to  and  fro 

O'er  folded  buds  the  bleak  winds  pass, 
A  thrush  upon  the  elm  tree  near 

Sings  with  reassuring  sweetness, 

'Soon  will  end  this  incompleteness, 
When  June  is  here-    When  June  is  here!'" 

The  family  Troglodytidae,  composed  of  the  thrashers  and. 
wrens,  is  divided  into  two  sub-families,  namely,  Miminae-. 
composed  of  the  thrashers,  mocking  birds  and  catbirds,  and 
Troglodytinse,  composed  of  the  wrens.  The  former  has  in 
it  about  fifty  species,  and  while  they  are  all  American  birds, 
only  a  dozen  species  reach  the  United  States,  and  these  rank 
among  our  best  song  birds. 

The  brown  thrasher,  like  the  golden-winged  woodpecker,, 
has  many  names,  some  of  which -are  the  ground  thrush,  tawny 
thrush,  red  thrush,  brown  mocking  bird,  French  mocking  bird 

"5 


n6  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

and  English  mocking  bird.  Wilson  called  it  the  ferruginous 
thrush,  turdus  rufous,  and  classed  it  in  the  family  turdidse,  and 
it  is  now  commonly  called  the  brown  thrush.  This  is  an  er- 
ror. He  has,  however,  some  of  the  characteristics  of  the 
thrushes,  namely,  their  tawny  coloring  and  spotted  breast,  and 
like  them,  he  is  a  fine  singer.  And  "certainly,"  as  Miss  Blan- 
chan  says,  "his  bold,  swinging  flight  and  habit  of  hopping  over 
the  ground  would  seem  to  indicate  that  he  is  not  very  far  re- 
moved from  the  tree  thrushes.  But  he  has  one  undeniable 
wren-like  trait,  that  of  twitching,  wagging  and  thrashing  his 
long  tail  about  to  help  express  his  emotions.  It  swings  like 
a  pendulum  as  he  rests  on  a  branch,  and  thrashes  about  in  a 
most  ludicrous  way  as  he  is  feeding  on  the  ground  upon  the 
worms,  insects  and  fruit  that  constitute  his  diet." 

The  bill  of  the  brown  thrasher  is  very  long,  heavy  at  the 
base,  curved,  pointed,  black  above  and  yellowish  below,  and 
much  like  that  of  the  cuckoo,  except  that  it  is  beset  with  strong 
bristles  at  the  base ;  iris  of  the  eye,  brilliant  yellow ;  region 
about  the  eyes,  light  brown ;  chin,  white ;  upper  parts  of  the 
body,  reddish  brown,  darkest  on  the  wings ;  wings,  short, 
heavy  and  reaching  back  only  to  the  base  of  the  tail ;  lesser 
and  greater  wing  coverts  tipped  with  white ;  tail  very  long, 
well  rounded,  of  a  reddish  brown,  droops  below  the  wings  and 
opens  and  shuts  like  a  fan ;  underparts  of  the  body  white  with 
black  spots  forming  longitudinal  streaks ;  tarsi,  long  and 
strong;  feet,  long  and  well  adapted  to  a  life  of  scratching  for 
a  living  among  the  leaves  in  the  thickets.  In  appearance  the 
male  and  female  are  much  alike ;  the  latter  may  be  distin- 
guished from  the  former  by  the  white  on  the  wing  being  nar- 
rower, and  the  spots  fewer  on  the  breast. 

The  brown  thrasher  is  a  migrant  whose  range  extends 
from  the  Gulf  States  north  to  Manitoba,  Maine  and  Ontario 
and  west  to  the  Rocky  Mountains.  It  comes  north  in  the  lat- 
ter part  of  March  and  in  April  and  returns  south  in  the  latter 
part  of  September  and  the  first  part  of  October.  It  is  most 
common  in  the  Carolinian  zone,  where  it  rears  two  broods  in  a 
season.  Those  that  come  north  usually  nest  in  May.  The 
nest  is  built  on  the  ground  or  near  to  it  in  a  bush.  At  Somer- 
leaze  we  have  had  a  pair  of  them  for  several  years.  A  favorite 


The  Brown  Thrasher  117 

place  for  their  nest  has  been  on  a  lower  limb,  covered  by  an 
overhanging  one  of  silver  spruce  which  stands  on  the  front 
lawn.  The  nest  is  roughly  made  of  small  sticks,  twigs  and 
rootlets  and  lined  with  finer  rootlets  and  hair.  By  the  latter 
part  of  May  three  to  five  eggs  have  been  laid.  The  ground- 
work of  the  eggs  varies  from  a  white  or  creamy  color  to  a  very 
pale  greenish  blue  and  are  speckled  over  the  entire  surface 
with  reddish  brown.  My  observation  confirms  Mr.  Dugmore's 
statement  that,  "while  on  the  nest  these  birds,  like  their  rela- 
tives the  wrens,  sit  very  close,  allowing  themselves  to  be  al- 
most caught,  but  once  they  leave  the  nest  their  manner 
changes  and  they  become  intensely  noisy,  making  a  great  pre- 
tense of  attacking  the  intruder,  uttering  repeatedly  their  harsh, 
scolding  notes."  One  afternoon  I  attempted  to  show  my  lit- 
tle grandson  the  young  birds  in  the  nest,  by  holding  him  up  in 
my  arms  and  lifting  the  overhanging  limb  so  that  he  could 
look  in  upon  them.  The  old  birds  discovered  what  I  was  do- 
ing and  made  a  fierce  attack  upon  us  by  repeatedly  flying  into 
our  faces  and  striking  at  our  eyes  with  their  beaks,  and  fear- 
ing that  they  might  injure  the  lad,  I  retreated. 

When  feeding,  the  brown  thrasher  runs  over  the  ground 
very  much  like  a  robin  and  scratches  among  the  leaves  and 
other  debris  very  much  like  the  chickens  do,  and  sometimes 
they  throw  the  leaves  and  other  debris  up  and  over  their 
backs.  We  are  indebted  to  Sylvester  D.  Judd,  assistant  orni- 
thologist, U.  S.  Department  of  Agriculture,  for  quite  a  full 
knowledge  of  their  food.  He  says,  "the  proportions  of  the 
different  elements  of  their  food,  as  determined  by  an  examina- 
tion of  121  stomachs  collected  from  Maine  to  Florida  and  as 
far  west  as  Kansas,  is  as  follows :  Animal  matter,  63  per  cent. ; 
vegetable,  35 ;  mineral,  2 ;"  and  that  "the  economic  relation  of 
the  brown  thrasher  to  agriculture  may  be  summed  up  as  fol- 
lows :  Two-thirds  of  the  bird's  food  is  animal ;  the  vegetable 
food  is  mostly  fruit,  but  the  quantity  taken  from  cultivated 
crops  is  offset  by  three  times  that  volume  of  insects.  In  de- 
stroying insects  they  are  helping  to  keep  in  check  organisms 
the  undue  increase  of  which  disturbs  the  balance  of  nature  and 
threaten  our  welfare." 

As  we  have  already  said,  the  brown  thrasher  is  a  ground 


n8  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

gleaner,  but  his  songs  are  from  the  topmost  limbs  of  some 
bush  or  tree  near  by  where  his  mate  is  nesting.  On  my  way 
from  the  interurban  station  to  Buzzard's  Roost  there  stood  a 
very  large  oak  in  a  field  close  by  an  osage  orange  fence.  Many 
times  from  the  top  of  that  tree  have  I  heard  a  brown  thrasher 
singing,  evidently  for  his  mate  who  was  nesting  in  the  osage 
orange  bushes,  and, 

"  'Twas  a  song  that  rippled  and  reveled  and  ran 
Ever  back  to  the  note  whence  it  began, 
Rising  and  falling  and  never  did  stay, 
Like  a  fountain  that  feeds  on  itself  all  day." 

Mr.  Cheney  in  his  Wood  Notes  Wild  describes  the  man- 
ner of  his  singing  by  saying:  "On  a  fine  morning  in  June,  when 
he  rises  to  the  branch  of  a  wayside  tree,  on  the  top  of  a  bush 
at  the. edge  of  the  pasture,  the  first  eccentric  accent  convinces 
us  that  the  spirit  of  song  has  fast  hold  on  him.  As  the  fervor 
increases  his  long  and  elegant  tail  drops;  all  his  feathers  sep- 
arate ;  his  whole  plumage  is  lifted,  it  floats,  trembles ;  his  head 
is  raised  and  his  bill  wide  open;  there  is  no  mistake,  it  is  the 
power  of  the  God.  No  pen  can  report  him  now ;  we  must  wait 
till  the  frenzy  passes." 

At  Somerleaze  he  sings  from  the  top  of  a  white  oak  which 
stands  upon  the  lawn,  and  up  there,  as  Lucy  Larcom  says : 

"The  brown  thrush  keeps  singing,  'a  nest  do  you  see, 
And  five  eggs  hid  by  me  in  the  juniper  tree? 
Don't  meddle!  don't  touch!  little  girl,  little  boy, 
Or  the  world  will  lose  some  of  its  joy! 
Now  I'm  glad!  now  I'm  free! 
And  always  shall  be, 
If  you  never  bring  sorrow  to  me '  " 


CATBIRD. 

(Galeoscoptes  carolinensis). 
i  Life-size. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 


May  14 — May  20. 

THE  CATBIRD. 

Order — Passeres.  Suborder — Oscines. 

Family — Troglodytidse.  Subfamily — Miminse. 

Genus — Galeoscoptes.  Species — Galeoscoptes  carolinensis. 

Length— 8.00  to  9.35 ;  wing,  3.45  to  3.75 ;  tail,  3.70  to  4.25. 

Migration — North,  March;  south,  October. 

"He  sits  on  a  branch  of  yon  blossoming  bush, 

This  madcap  cousin  of  robin  and  thrush, 

And  sings  without  ceasing  the  whole  morning  long; 

Now  wild,  now  tender,  the  wayward  song 

That  flows  from  his  soft,  gray,  fluttering  throat; 

But  often  he  stops  in  his  sweetest  note, 

And  shaking  a  flower  from  the  blossoming  bough, 

Drawls  out,  'mi-eu,  mi-ow!'" 

The  catbird  gets  its  common  name  from  its  well  known 
note,  "mi-eu,  mi-ow,"  which  it  drawls  out  like  a  half-grown 
kitten.  Formerly  it  was  classed  with  the  fly-catchers.  Alex- 
ander Wilson  changed  it  to  the  thrushes.  In  doing  so  he  says, 
"As  he  never  seizes  his  prey  on  wing,  has  none  of  their  man- 
ners, feeds  principally  on  fruit,  and  seems  to  differ  so  little 
from  the  thrushes,  I  think  he  more  properly  belongs  to  the 
latter  tribe  than  to  any  other  genus  we  have.  His  bill,  legs 
and  feet,  place  and  mode  of  building,  the  color  of  the  eggs,  his 
imitative  notes,  food  and  general  manners,  all  justify  me  in  re- 
moving him  to  the  genus."  Coues  in  his  Key  to  North  Ameri- 

119 


120  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

can  Birds  places  him  in  the  family  turdidae,  composed  of  the 
thrushes  and  the  sub-family  miminse,  composed  of  the  mock- 
ing thrushes.  This  sub-family,  however,  is  now  a  sub-family 
of  the  family  troglodytidse,  which,  as  we  have  heretofore  seen, 
is  composed  of  the  wrens,  thrushes,  etc.  And  this  is  why  he 
has  been  recognized  as  the  "madcap  cousin  of  the  robin  and 
thrush,"  and  is  now  the  cousin  in  fact  of  the  mocking  bird, 
who  in  many  respects  he  so  much  resembles.  In  his  general 
form,  he  is  slender  and  graceful.  His  bill  is  well  shaped,  slight- 
ly arched,  and  of  black  color ;  eyes,  brown ;  general  plumage 
above  is  slaty-gray ;  the  head,  tail  and  inner  webs  of  the  pri- 
maries being  of  a  brownish  black ;  cheeks,  chin,  and  under- 
plumage  of  a  deep  bluish-gray,  and  the  under-tail  about  the 
vent  is  a  distinct  patch  of  dark  chestnut.  In  appearance  the 
sexes  are  alike. 

The  range  of  the  catbird  extends  from  Panama  and  Cuba 
north  to  British  Columbia  and  Saskatchewan  and  west  rarely 
to  the  Pacific  Coast  States ;  breeds  from  the  Gulf  States  north, 
and  winters  from  Illinois  south.  It  comes  north  about  the 
middle  of  April  and  returns  south  about  the  middle  of  Oc- 
tober. Mating  begins  soon  after  their  arrival  north.  Gen- 
erally they  rear  two  and  sometimes  three  broods  in  a  season. 

The  nest  of  the  catbird,  as  Miss  Blanchon  has  well  said, 
"is  like  a  veritable  scrap-basket,  loosely  woven  of  coarse  twigs, 
bits  of  newspaper  and  rags,  and  this  rough  exterior  is  softly 
lined  and  made  fit  to  receive  the  four  to  six  pretty  dark  green 
blue  eggs  to  be  laid  therein."  The  nest  is  placed  in  briars, 
vines  or  low  bushes  not  more  than  five  to  ten  feet  from  the 
ground.  Those  that  have  been  built  about  our  homes  have 
been  built  in  the  lilac,  syringa  and  bridle-wreath  bushes  and 
the  honeysuckle  vines.  A  few  years  ago  I  spent  the  summer 
at  Elmhurst  instead  of  Somerleaze.  That  summer  a  pair  of 
catbirds  came  to  our  backyard  and  we  became  quite  well  ac- 
quainted with  each  other,  so  much  so  that  they  would  come 
to  me  when  I  called  them.  One  morning  while  working  in 
the  garden,  I  noticed  that  they  were  hunting  a  nesting  place, 
and  that  a  crotch  in  a  syringa  bush  in  the  corner  of  the  yard 
seemed  to  please  them.  I  gathered  a  handful  of  leaves,  twigs 
and  grass  and  placed  them  in  the  bush  to  coax  them  to  build 


The  Catbird  121 


there.  On  my  return  home  at  night  I  found  that  they  had  car- 
ried away  every  bit  of  my  material  and  used  it  in  building 
their  nest  in  a  bush  near  by  in  my  neighbor's  yard.  They  re- 
mained about  our  home  all  summer,  and  as  I  sat  in  the  yard, 

I  could 

"Listen  to  his  rondel, 

To  his  lay  romantical, 

To  his  sacred  canticle, 

Hear  him  lilting! 

See  him  tilting 

His  saucy  head  and  tail,  fluttering 

While  uttering 

All  the  difficult  operas  under  the  sun 

Just  for  fun." 

Towards  the  last  of  September  I  noticed  that  one  of  my 
catbirds  had  gone.  Then  I  wondered  if  it  was  the  male,  for 
it  is  said  that  he  comes  first  in  the  spring.  The  other  bird  re- 
mained until  about  the  middle  of  October.  About  four  o'clock 
each  morning  I  could  hear  it  near  by  mewing.  I  felt  sorry 
for  it  in  its  loneliness.  One  evening  I  heard  it  making  the 
same  noise,  and  in  searching  for  it,  found  it  in  a  woodbine  on 
my  neighbor's  house,  just  next  to  where  I  sleep,  eating  the 
fruit  of  the  vine.  No  doubt  this  was  what  it  was  doing  when 
I  heard  it  in  the  morning.  The  next  spring  my  catbirds  came 
back  and  built  their  nest  in  the  very  crotch  in  the  syringa 
where  I  had  placed  the  material  for  them  the  year  before,  and 
they  have  returned  to  me  year  after  year  since  then.  In  1904 
they  commenced  building  their  nest  May  15th  and  the  last 
I  saw  of  them  was  the  4th  of  October.  To-day  as  I  write  this 
chapter  I  look  out  of  the  window  and  see  their  nest  filled  with 
snow,  and  I  wonder  where  my  catbirds  are.  Probably  in 
Panama  basking  in  the  sunshine  and  having  a  really  good  time 
— at  least,  I  hope  so.  I  shall  confidently  expect  them  again 
when  the  springtime  comes. 

Much  has  been  written  fn  commendation  and  condemna- 
tion of  the  song  of  the  catbird.  The  cat  mew  of  the  bird,  per- 
haps, more  than  anything  else  has  been  the  cause  of  bringing 
his  song  into  disrepute.  As  we  have  seen,  he  is  a  member  of 
the  sub-family  miminse,  and  a  cousin  of  the  mocking  bird,  who 
he  resembles,  not  only  in  his  ability  to  mimic  the  songs  of 


122  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

other  birds,  but  also  in  appearance.  I  have  been  much  inter- 
ested in  his  singing  and  with  his  songs,  many  of  which  to  me 
have  been  delightful.  He  has  a  dozen  or  more  songs  or  parts 
of  songs  which  he  sings,  many  of  them  being  the  broken  and 
jumbled  notes  of  other  birds,  and  some  of  them  their  songs 
entire.  I  have  heard  him  mimic  or  mock  the  Baltimore  oriole, 
the  whistle  of  the  tufted  titmouse,  the  cooing  of  the  mourning 
dove,  the  call  of  the  killdeer  and  the  song  of  the  brown  thrash- 
er. Unlike  his  cousin  the  brown  thrasher,  who  sings  from 
the  topmost  branch  of  the  tallest  tree,  the  catbird  sings  from 
the  deep  foliage  of  a  tree  or  bush.  This  habit  of  his  is  beau- 
tifully portrayed  by  Cora  Mae  Cratty  in  her  lines  Only  a  Song, 
in  which  she  says  : 

''Out  in  the  apple  tree,  swinging  and  singing, 

Swinging  and  singing  its  heart's  jubilee, 
Sits  a  gray  catbird  in  modesty  clinging 

Deep  in  the  foliage  where  no  eye  can  see. 
List  to  his  roundelay,  rippling  and  ringing, 

Hour  after  hour,  the  green  branches  through. 
Showers  of  song  o'er  sad  hearts  thus  he's  flinging, 

Cheering  and  healing  while  hidden  from  view." 

Of  the  song  of  the  catbird,  Audubon  says :  "It  is  com- 
prised of  many  of  the  gentler  trills  and  sweeter  modulations 
of  our  various  woodland  choristers,  delivered  with  apparent 
caution,  and  with  all  the  attention  necessary  to  enable  the  per- 
former to  please  the  ear  of  his  mate.  Each  cadence  passes  on 
without  faltering;  and  if  you  are  acquainted  with  the  song  of 
the  birds  he  so  sweetly  imitates,  you  are  sure  to  recognize  the 
manner  of  the  different  species.  When  the  warmth  of  his  lov- 
ing bosom  engages  him  to  make  a  choice  of  the  notes  of  our 
best  songsters,  he  brings  forth  sounds  as  mellow  as  those  of 
the  thrasher  and  mocking  bird.  These  medleys,  heard  in  the 
calm  and  balmy  hours  of  retiring  day,  always  seem  to  possess 
double  power,  and  he  must  have  a  dull  ear,  indeed,  and  with 
little  relish  for  the  simple  melodies  of  nature,  who  can  listen 
to  them  without  delight." 

The  usefulness  and  harmfulness  of  a  bird  depends  in  a 
great  measure  upon  the  food  it  eats.  Of  the  food  of  the  cat- 
bird, Dr.  Sylvester  S.  Judd,  who  examined  two  hundred  and 


The  Catbird  123 


thirteen  of  their  stomachs,  says  forty-four  per  cent,  of  their 
food  consisted  of  animal  matter,  and  fifty-six  per  cent,  of  vege- 
table matter.  Ants,  beetles,  caterpillars  and  grasshoppers  con- 
stituted three-fourths  of  the  animal  food,  the  remainder  being 
made  up  of  bugs,  miscellaneous  insects  and  spiders.  One- 
third  of  the  vegetable  food  consisted  of  such  fruits  as  are  cul- 
tivated, and  the  rest  was  mostly  of  wild  fruits,  including  cher- 
ries, dogwood,  sour  gum,  elderberries,  greenbrier,  spice  ber- 
ries, black  alder,  sumac  and  poison  ivy.  In  his  report  he  says : 
"By  killing  the  birds  their  services  as  insect  destroyers  would 
be  lost,  so  the  problem  is  to  keep  both  the  birds-  and  the  fruit. 
Experiments  conducted  by  this  division  show  that  catbirds 
prefer  mulberries  to  strawberries  and  cherries,  hence  it  may 
be  inferred  that  these  two  latter  crops  may  be  protectd  by 
planting  the  prolific  Russian  mulberry,  which,  if  planted  in 
hen  yards  or  pig  runs  will  afford  excellent  food  for  the  hens 
and  pigs,  besides  attracting  the  birds  away  from  more  valuable 
fruit.  Wild  cherry,  buckthorns,  dogwood,  wild  grapes  and  el- 
der should  be  encouraged  by  the  farmer  who  wishes  to  escape 
the  depredations  of  the  birds  and  still  receive  their  benefits." 
This  is  just  what  we  are  doing  at  Buzzard's  Roost,  and  in  so 
doing  are  hoping  that  what  Dr.  Judd  advocates  is  the  true 
solution  of  the  much  discussed  subject. 


HOUSE  WREN. 

(Troglodytes  aedon.) 

About  Life-size. 


OO?YRIGHT  1900,  BY  A.  W     MUMFORD,   CHICAGO 


CHAPTER  XXII. 


May  21 — May  27. 

THE  HOUSE  WREN. 

Order — Passeres.  Suborder — Oscines. 

Family — Troglodytidae.  Subfamily — Troglodytinae. 

Genus — Troglodytes.  Species — Troglodytes  aedon. 

Length — 4.25  to  5.25  ;  wing,  1.90  to  2.15  ;  tail,  1.72  to  2.08. 
Migration — North,  April ;  south,  September. 

"Blythely,  twittering,  gayly  flittering, 

Thro'  the  budding  glen; 
Gold-crested,  sunny   breasted, 

Goes  the  tiny  wren. 
Peeping,   musing,   picking,   choosing, 

Nook  is  found  at  last; 
Moss  and  feather,  twined  together — 

Home  is  shaped  at  last." 

The  subfamily  Troglodytinse  is  composed  of  the  wrens. 
Of  these  there  are  about  one  hundred  species  or  varieties  and 
most  of  them  are  confined  to  America.  They  are  small,  fear- 
less, excitable,  plain  colored  birds.  Most  of  them  have  char- 
acteristic scolding  notes  with  which  they  express  their  dis- 
pleasure or  alarm  and  most  of  them  are  good  singers. 

The  house  wren,  troglodytes  aedon,  is  one  of  our  smallest 
birds,  being  only  about  three-fourths  as  large  as  the  English 
sparrow.  Its  bill  is  rather  long,  sharp,  and  well  adapted  to 
the  taking  of  the  insects,  their  eggs  and  larvae  upon  which  it 
lives ;  upper  part  of  head  and  body  of  an  umber  brown ;  back 
usually  marked  with  indistinct  bars ;  wings  and  tail,  darker 
brown ;  wings  are  barred  and  extend  beyond  the  rear  of  body ; 
tail  stands  obliquely,  and  is  longer  than  those  of  the  other 

125 


i26  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

wrens  and  distinctly  barred ;  underparts  of  the  body  of  a  whit- 
ish color.  The  male  and  female  are  alike  in  size,  color  and 
general  appearance. 

The  range  of  the  house  wren  extends  from  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico  north  to  Manitoba,  and  in  the  United  States  west  to 
the  Mississippi  River.  It  winters  south  of  the  Carolinas.  It 
comes  north  in  March  and  April  and  returns  south  in  Septem- 
ber and  October.  It  breeds  throughout  its  range  northward 
from  central  Indiana,  Illinois  and  southern  Ohio.  The  nest- 
ing season  begins  about  the  tenth  of  May.  It  nests  in  almost 
any  kind  of  a  suitable  hole  or  cavity  and  will  take  possession 
of  a  bird  box  or  gourd,  if  not  prevented  from  doing  so  by  the 
English  sparrows.  Four  to  eight  whitish  eggs,  uniformly  and 
minutely  speckled  with  purplish  brown,  constitute  a  clutch. 
Two  and  sometimes  three  broods  are  reared  in  a  season. 

Many  interesting  stories  have  been  narrated  about  the 
places  which  have  been  taken  possession  of  by  these  birds  for 
nesting  purposes.  '  One  of  these  is  as  follows :  "The  home  of  a 
wren,  a  few  miles  from  Petersburg,  Va.,  furnishes  the  strang- 
est case  in  the  matter  of  queer  habitations  yet  discovered.  This 
country  is  the  site  of  one  of  the  most  dramatic  epochs  of  the 
civil  war,  and  frequently  the  bones  of  unburied  soldiers  are 
picked  up.  Recently  a  rusty  old  skull  was  found  in  which 
one  of  these  wrens  chose  a  shelter.  The  skull,  when  found, 
was  hidden  in  a  patch  of  shrubbery.  The  interior  of  the  one- 
time pate  was  carefully  cleaned  out,  and  nestled  in  the  basin 
of  the  bony  structure  was  the  birthplace  of  many  a  baby  wren. 
The  skull  made  a  perfect  domicile.  A  bullet  hole  in  the  rear 
formed  a  window.  An  eyeless  socket  was  the  exit  and  en- 
trance to  the  grim  home."  The  nesting  habits  of  the  wren 
are  interesting  because,  as  I  have  said,  of  the  strange  places 
frequently  selected  by  them  for  their  nests  and  because  of  the 
fact  that  they  build  many  sham  nests.  Why  they  build 
these  has  been  a  mystery  to  bird  students.  Some  think  they 
do  it  to  prevent  other  birds  from  using  the  holes  and  cavities 
in  the  vicinity  of  their  real  nests.  Others  think  that  the  sham 
nests  are  built  for  the  use  of  the  male  and  first  brood  while 
the  female  is  brooding  the  second  time  and  even  the  third 
time.  Others  think  that  it  is  done  so  that  the  male  may  pre- 


The  House  Wren  127 

tend  to  be  defending  them,  and  thus  divert  attention  from  the 
true  nest. 

I  have  been  much  interested  and  entertained  by  giving  at- 
tention to  the  nesting  of  these  birds.  On  my  return  to  Somer- 
leaze  one  evening,  John  King,  our  colored  boy  who  was  a  great 
lover  of  the  birds  and  who  is  now  dead,  told  me  that  a  pair 
of  wrens  had  been  about  the  woodyard  that  day  looking  for 
a  nesting  place.  I  said  to  him  that  we  must  help  them  and 
put  up  a  box  for  them.  We  did  so  and  they  immediately  took 
possession  of  it  and  commenced  the  work  of  building  their 
nest.  In  a  few  days  John  told  me  that  the  English  sparrows 
were  fighting  our  wrens  and  my  observations  convinced  me 
that  he  was  right.  I  then  got  a  cigar  box  and  put  it  up  for 
them  down  in  front  of  the  house  so  that  I  could  watch  and 
study  them.  This  time  I  made  the  hole  for  their  entrance  so 
small  that  English  sparrows  could  not  enter  it.  That  was 
years  ago,  and  ever  since  then  I  have  had  wrens  in  that  box. 
Five  years  ago  I  put  up  a  gourd  for  the  wrens  in  a  catalpa 
tree  which  stood  in  front  of  Elmhurst,  about  ten  feet  from  the 
porch,  and  every  year  since  we  have  had  the  companionship 
of  a  pair  of  them.  One  February  morning  in  1903,  when  I 
opened  the  door  to  go  down  town  to  business  I  discovered 
that  the  wind  had  blown  down  and  broken  the  gourd.  I  picked 
up  the  pieces  of  the  gourd  and  nest.  They  recalled  the  lines 
of  Margaret  E.  Sangster: 

"Never  again  in  this  empty  nest 

Of  love  that  mated,  the  love  that  sung; 

The  birds  are  flown  to  the  east  and  west 

The  husk  of  their  homestead  has  no  tongue 

To  tell  of  the  sweet,  still  summer  eves, 

Of  the  sweeter,  merrier,  summer  days; 

Only  a  nest  in  the  falling  leaves, 

And  silence  here  in  the  wood's  dark  maze. 

But  I  hold  in  my  hand  a  dainty  thing, 
Woven  of  feather  and  fluff  and  reed, 
Once  'twas  the  haven  of  breast  and  wing, 
And  the  shelter  of  callow  and  helpless  need. 
It  tells  of  a  passionate  gladness  gone; 
It  dumbly  whispers  that  love  is  best; 
That  never  a  night  but  has  a  dawn — 
And  I  drop  a  kiss  in  my  empty  nest." 


128  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

I  carried  the  wreck  into  my  study  for  examination  and 
the  examination  was  full  of  interest.  The  gourd  measured 
sixteen  inches  in  circumference,  and  the  birds  filled  it  full  ex- 
cepting the  nest  proper,  which  was  somewhat  egg-like  in 
shape,  with  the  small  end  to  the  rear.  The  nest  inside  meas- 
ured two  by  three  inches  and  was  beautifully  canopied  with 
hair  and  feathers.  It  was  constructed  of  five  layers  of  ma- 
terials. The  first  and  main  layer  was  made  of  307  tip  ends  of 
limbs,  which  measured  from  a  half  inch  to  six  and  one-half 
inches  in  length,  and  all  of  them,  except  one,  seeme'd  to  have 
been  obtained  from  maple  trees.  The  second  layer  was  made 
of  midribs  of  catalpa  leaves ;  the  third  of  rootlets  and  strips  of 
bark;  the  fourth  of  catalpa  leaves;  and  the  fifth  of  hair  and 
very  small  bird  feathers.  Often  have  I  seen  Tommy  Wren 
come  to  the  door  of  that  nest  and  sing  to  Jenny,  as  only  a  wren 
can  sing,  and  he  had  good  cause  for  doing  so,  for  most  cer- 
tainly she  had  been  provided  with  one  of  the  snuggest  and 
most  dainty  of  homes,  and  there  was  no  reason  why  she  should 
not  be  happy. 

In  the  autumn  of  1876  Judge  Robert  S.  Taylor  and  I  were 
attending  court  at  Bluffton,  Indiana,  and  stopping  at  the  same 
boarding  house.  One  evening  we  were  sitting  in  the  front 
yard  under  a  pear  tree  and  eating  of  its  fruit.  He  said  to  me : 
"Mr.  Woollen,  have  you  ever  thought  of  it,  that  most  of  the 
best  things  of  this  world  are  its  smallest  things?  For  instance, 
of  all  the  pears  the  Seckle,  the  smallest  of  them,  is  the  most 
delicious  and  the  best."  And  he  was  right.  The  house  wren, 
as  I  have  said,  is  one  of  our  very  smallest  birds,  and  yet  it  is 
one  of  the  very  best.  It  is  almost  exclusively  an  insectivorous 
bird,  and  this  is  why  it  is  so  valuable  to  us.  More  especially 
is  this  so  because  of  the  fact  that  it  prefers  to  build  its  nest 
about  our  homes,  and  thus  it  becomes  the  protector  of  our  gar- 
dens and  orchards.  It  is  one  of  the  most  companionable  of 
birds,  and  if  not  abused,  becomes  very  tame  and  confiding.  A 
gentleman  told  me  a  true  story,  illustrating  this  fact.  His  sis- 
ter, who  lived  in  the  country,  and  was  a  lover  of  birds,  put  up 
a  box  on  a  post  in  the  side  yard  for  a  pair  of  wrens  to  nest  in. 
They  took  possession  of  the  box,  built  their  nest,  and  Jenny 
Wren  was  brooding  when  one  morning  Tommy  Wren  came 


The  House  Wren  129 

flying  wildly  about  the  lady  and  seemed  much  distressed.  She 
said  to  him,  "Go  away,  Tommy ;  I  haven't  time  to  talk  to  you 
now."  Tommy  persisted,  and  fearing  that  something  had  hap- 
pened to  their  home,  she  went  into  the  side  yard  to  see  and 
to  her  consternation  discovered  that  a  big  snake  had  crawled 
up  the  stake  and  was  trying  to  get  at  Jenny.  She  called  to 
the  gardener,  who  was  mowing  weeds  near  by,  and  he  came 
and  cut  off  the  snake's  head,  and  then  Tommy  was  happy. 

The  first  summer  after  putting  up  the  box  for  the  pair  of 
wrens  at  Somerleaze,  we  became  well  acquainted  with  each 
other.  A  tree  stood  close  by  their  nest,  the  limbs  of  it  reach- 
ing to  about  fifteen  feet  of  it.  I  could  go  to  the  nest  at  any 
hour  of  the  day  and  tap  on  the  stake  and  say,  "Come  to  me, 
Jenny  Wren,"  and  she  and  Tommy  would  come  and  alight  on 
the  limbs  next  to  the  nest,  and  then  Jenny  would  scold  me  at 
a  great  rate,  as  much  as  to  say,  "Why  are  you  disturbing  my 
home  in  this  manner?"  True  to  their  habit,  this  pair  of  wrens 
built  three  sham  nests.  A  pleasing  incident  connected  with 
this  pair  of  wrens  was  this :  The  next  spring  I  was  out  at  the 
farm  planting  shrubbery  when  all  at  once  I  thought  I  heard  a 
noise  close  by  like  that  of  Jenny  Wren  when  she  was  scolding 
me.  I  looked  up  into  a  haw  bush  close  by  from  which  the 
noise  seemed  to  come,  and  sure  enough,  there  was  my  Jenny 
Wren.  At  least  I  concluded  it  was  my  Jenny  Wren,  for  she 
followed  me  about  the  yard  and  scolded  me  as  vigorously  as 
she  had  the  year  before.  If  I  am  right  in  my  conclusion,  is 
it  not  interesting  to  remember  that  this  pair  of  little  birds  had 
returned  from  the  far  distant  Southland  with  unerring  certain- 
ty to  the  very  spot  where  they  had  their  home  last  year,  and 
that  Jenny  had  not  forgotten  how  to  scold? 

The  house  wren's  song  is  a  merry  one,  sudden,  abruptly 
ended,  and  frequently  repeated.  Mr.  Ernest  Seton  Thompson 
labels  his  picture  of  it  "The  Irrepressible,"  and  no  doubt  he 
so  named  it  from  its  song  and  nervous  restlessness.  It  has 
been  my  observation  that  Tommy  does  all  the  singing  and 
Jenny  all  the  scolding.  I  have  never  heard  Jenny  sing  and  I 
have  never  heard  Tommy  scold,  although  he  stays  close  by 
Jenny  while  she  does.  Tommy  is  a  most  devoted. husband  and 
father.  While  Jenny  is  brooding,  he  constantly  comes  close  to 


130  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

her  and  sings  his  sweetest  notes.  Quite  often  he  flies  to  the 
entrance  to  the  nest  and  looks  in,  as  much  as  to  say,  "How  is 
it  with  you,  my  dear?"  As  one  writer  has  said,  "Their  speech 
is  a  revelation  of  supreme  content,  a  liquid,  flexible  measure 
with  ripples  and  cascades  bubbling  through  and  over  a  dash 
of  pure  color.  There  are  hours  when  he  sings  with  such  force 
that  his  whole  little  body  catches  the  keynote  and  natural 
rhythm ;  the  melody  becomes  compounded  of  his  very  sub- 
stance, body  of  his  body  and  soul  of  his  soul.  It  is  an  inunda- 
tion of  musical  notes,  cascadic,  cataclysmic,  the  tide  of  song 
rising  till  it  drowns  his  personality ;  he  is  no  longer  a  bird  but 
an  animated  song."  And  this  reminds  me  of  the  words  of  Mr. 
Simeon  Peace  Cheney.  He  says,  "The  horse  neighs,  the  bull 
bellows,  the  lion  roars,  the  tiger  growls, — the  world  is  full  of 
vocal  sounds ;  only  the  birds  sing.  They  are  Nature's  finest 
artists,  whose  lives  and  works  are  above  the  earth.  They  have 
not  learned  of  us;  it  is  our  delight  to  learn  of  them.  To  no 
other  living  things  are  man's  mind  and  heart  so  greatly  in- 
debted. Myriads  of  these  beautiful  creatures,  journeying 
thousands  of  miles  over  oceans  and  continents,  much  of  the 
way  by  night — to  avoid  murderers  ! — return,  unfailingly  as  the 
spring,  prompt  even  to  the  day  and  hour,  to  build  their  cun- 
ning nests  and  rear  their  young  in  our  orchards  and  door- 
yards,  to  delight  us  with  their  beauty  and  grace  of  movement, 
and,  far  above  all,  to  pour  over  the  world  the  glory  of  their 
song." 


I 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 


May  28— June  3. 

THE  KINGBIRD. 

Order — Passeres.  Suborder — Clamatores. 

Family — Tyrannidse.  Genus —  Ty  rannus. 

Species — Tyrannus  tyrannus. 

Length— 8.00  to  9.00 ;  wing,  4.45  to  4.75  ;  tail,  3.40  to  3.75. 
Migration — North,  April;  south,  September. 

"Far  in  the  south,  where  vast  Maragnon  flows, 

And  boundless  forests  unknown  wilds  enclose, 

Vine-tangled  shores,  and  suffocating  woods, 

Parched  up  with  heat,  or  drowned  with  pouring  floods; 

Where   each   extreme   alternately  prevails, 

And  Nature  sad  ravages  bewails; 

Lo!  high  in  air,  above  those  trackless  wastes, 

With   Spring's  return  the  kingbird  hither  hastes." 

The  family  Tyrannidae  is  composed  of  the  flycatchers  and 
has  in  it  about  three  hundred  and  fifty  species.  Most  of  these 
are  found  in  tropical  America,  where  they  are  much  appre- 
ciated as  insect  destroyers.  About  thirty-five  species  are  found 
in  the  United  States.  They  are  classed  in  the  sub-order  Clam- 
atores, which  is  composed  of  the  perching  songless  birds. 
They  have  short  legs,  a  short  neck,  large  heads  and  broad,  flat 
beaks,  and  bristles  at  the  base,  which  are  of  service  to  them 
in  entangling  the  insects  upon  which  they  live.  Among  the 
flycatchers  the  kingbird  undoubtedly  deserves  a  high  rank.  He 
is  also  called  the  bee  bird,  bee  martin  and  tyrant  fly- 
catcher. 


132  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

The  bill  of  the  adult  male  kingbird  is  broad  at  the  base, 
overhanging  at  the  point,  and  notched  and  of  a  glossy  black 
color,  and  furnished  with  bristles  at  the  base ;  the  eye  is  hazel ; 
the  plumage  on  the  crown,  though  not  forming  a  crest,  is  fre- 
quently erected  and  shows  a  rich  patch  of  orange  or  flame 
color,  but  when  the  feathers  lie  close  this  is  altogether  con- 
cealed; the  head  and  tail  are  nearly  black;  the  general  color 
above  is  a  dark  slaty  ash ;  the  wings  are  more  of  a  brownish 
cast;  the  quills  and  wing  coverts  are  white;  the  tail  is  even 
at  the  end,  and  tipped  with  white ;  the  upper  part  of  the  breast 
is  tinged  with  ash ;  the  throat  and  all  of  the  lower  parts  are 
pure  white ;  the  legs  and  feet  are  black,  seamed  with  gray. 
The  adult  female  differs  from  the  male  in  appearance  in  be- 
ing more  brownish  in  the  upper  parts,  has  a  smaller  streak  of 
paler  orange  on  the  crown,  and  a  narrower  border  of  duller 
white  on  the  tail. 

Of  the  migration  of  the  kingbird,  Mr.  Wells  W.  Cooke  in 
his  bulletin  on  the  Distribution  and  Migration  of  North 
American  Warblers,  says:  "Its  summer  home — from  New- 
foundland to  British  Columbia — has  a  width  of  2,800  miles ; 
its  paths  of  migration  converge  until  in  the  southern  United 
States  from  southern  Florida  to  the  mouth  of  the  Rio  Grande 
their  total  width'  is  900  miles.  Continuing  southward,  the 
eastern  edge  of  this  path  or  belt  appears  to  extend  from  south- 
ern Florida  to  Yucatan,  but  the  western  edge  is  less  sharply 
defined ;  few  individuals  of  the  species  seem  to  travel  west  of 
a  line  drawn  from  Corpus  Christi  to  Tabasco.  Thus  in  the 
latitude  of  southern  Yucatan  the  migration  path  is  scarcely 
400  miles  wide,  and  the  great  bulk  of  the  species  probably 
moves  in  a  belt  less  than  half  this  width." 

In  the  more  southern  parts  of  its  breeding  range,  mating 
and  nidification  begins  about  the  middle  of  May,  while  in 
northern  New  York  and  our  Northwestern  States  they  rarely 
begin  nesting  before  June.  Their  nests  are  usually  built  in  a 
tree  near  to  a  dwelling,  or  in  an  orchard  or  beside  a  field.  For 
many  of  the  illustrations  of  this  book  I  am  indebted  to  my 
friend  Rev.  Dr.  Hiram  W.  Kellogg,  who  is  a  great  lover  of 
the  birds  and  a  close  student  of  nature.  Many  of  the  photo- 
graphs were  taken  at  Buzzard's  Roost.  Accompanying  this 


An  unusual  home  for  the  kingbird 


Kellogg 


The  Kingbird  133 

chapter  are  two  of  his  pictures,  one  showing  an  unusual  home 
for  the  kingbird  and  the  other  young  kingbirds.  When  the 
kingbirds  have  once  selected  a  nesting  site,  like  many  other 
species,  if  not  disturbed,  they  will  return  to  it  for  many  years. 
This  has  been  true  of  a  pair  of  them  which  have  nested  at 
Somerleaze.  The  nest  is  usually  well  and  compactly  built  of 
weeds,  grass,  moss,  rootlets,  small  twigs,  and  lined  with  fine 
grass,  horse-hair  and  other  light  material.  The  male  assists 
in  the  construction  of  the  nest,  and  to  some  extent  in  the  du- 
ties of  incubation.  In  doing  this,  however,  he  shows  his  rest- 
lessness and  pugnacity,  for  every  few  minutes  he  elevates  his 
crest  and  looks  around  for  a  possible  enemy.  The  number 
of  eggs  varies  from  three  to  five.  The  ground  color  of  the 
eggs  varies  from  white  or  pale  creamy  white  to  a  very  faint 
rose  pink,  and  are  spotted  and  blotched  with  chestnut  brown 
and  light  lilac  gray.  Incubation  lasts  from  twelve  to  thirteen 
days,  and  in  about  two  weeks  the  young  are  able  to  leave  the 
nest.  Two  broods  are  sometimes  reared.  The  young  are  fed 
exculsively  upon  insects. 

The  feeding  habits  of  the  kingbird  are  interesting — and 
in  this  respect  the  flycatchers  are  all  alike.  Flycatcher  does 
not  mean  a  bird  that  lives  on  flies  exclusively,  as  the  name 
would  seem  to  imply,  but  one  which,  as  a  rule,  lives  on  flying 
insects  which  it  catches  while  in  flight.  For  instance,  the  king- 
bird will  be  seen  seated  on  his  perch,  which  at  Buzzard's 
Roost  is  the  topmost  branch  of  a  bitter  hickorynut  tree  that 
stands  near  the  cottage ;  from  this  perch  he  sallies  forth  and 
darts  upon  his  prey  in  midair.  It  is  wonderful  how  far  away 
he  can  see  passing  insects,  and  with  what  certainty  he  catches 
them,  and  when  he  does  this,  if  you  are  near  by  you  can  hear 
the  click  of  his  mandibles.  Having  caught  his  prey,  he  wheels 
about,  returns  to  his  point  of  observation  and  resumes  his 
watch  for  more.  In  returning  he  makes  much  noise  and  seems 
to  be  rejoicing  over  his  success,  and  so  Mr.  Ernest  Seton 
Thompson  has  labeled  his  picture  of  him,  "Victory." 

Professor  Beal  of  the  United  States  Department  of  Ag- 
riculture made  an  extensive  examination  of  the  food  of  the 
kingbird,  and  his  report  of  his  investigations  shows  that  about 
ninety  per  cent,  of  it  consists  of  animal  matter,  principally 


134  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

beetles,  grasshoppers,  butterflies,  spiders,  wild  bees,  wasps  and 
millipods.  I  have  said  that  the  kingbird  is  sometimes  called 
the  bee-bird  and  bee  martin.  This  comes  of  the  fact  that 
it  has  been  accused  of  being  a  bee  robber.  Upon  this  subject 
Professor  Beal's  report  shows  that  of  281  stomachs  examined 
by  him  only  14  contained  the  remains  of  honey  bees.  In  these 
were  50  honey  bees,  40  of  which  were  drones ;  4  certainly  were 
workers ;  of  6  he  was  not  certain.  The  stomachs  examined 
contained  19  robber-flies,  an  insect  injurious  to  bees,  and  more 
than  an  equivalent  for  the  worker  bees  eaten.  It  is  said  that 
the  kingbird  ejects  in  pellets  the  indigestible  portions  of  its 
food,  such  as  the  wing  covers  of  beetles,  the  legs  of  grasshop- 
pers and  the  seeds  of  berries. 

The  common  name,  tyrant  flycatcher,  and  the  scientific 
name,  tyrannus  tyrannus,  of  the  kingbird  was  given  to  it  be- 
cause of  the  fact  that  it  fights  and  tyrannizes  over  other  birds. 
This  is  true  only  as  to  a  limited  number  of  birds.  It  does 
fight  the  hawks,  eagles,  crows  and  jays.  I  have  never  seen  it 
fighting  any  others,  except  the  red-headed  woodpecker,  and  it 
exceptionally.  As  I  have  said,  we  have  had  a  pair  of  these 
birds  with  us  at  Somerleaze  for  several  years.  In  1904  they 
built  their  nest  in  an  elm  which  stands  close  to  our  summer 
home.  In  this  tree  a  pair  of  scarlet  tanagers  and  of  English 
sparrows  also  had  their  nests  within  a  few  feet  of  that  of  the 
kingbirds,  and  so  far  as  I  was  able  to  see  they  all  lived  to- 
gether harmoniously.  But  this  same  pair  of  kingbirds  fought 
the  crows  ferociously.  The  crows  had  only  to  come  within 
sight  during  the  nesting  season  to  be  attacked  by  these  mites. 
I  have  seen  them  pursue  the  crows,  overtake  them,  pick  at 
their  eyes,  pull  out  their  feathers,  and  prod  them  beneath  until 
they  were  almost  exhausted.  At  Buzzard's  Roost  on  a  Sep- 
tember day  I  saw  two  of  them  pursuing  three  crows  over- 
head and  down  Fall  Creek.  The  crows  tried  hard  and  in  vain 
to  turn  aside  into  the  timber  on  both  sides  of  the  stream,  but 
the  kingbirds  would  not  let  them  do  it.  If  the  crows  turned 
to  either  side,  the  kingbirds  instantly  were  on  that  side  and 
between  them  and  the  timber,  compelling  them  to  change  their 
course,  and  thus  they  pursued  them  and  perscuted  them  for  a 
mile  or  more.  It  is  evident  that  these  birds  attack  and  pur- 


The  Kingbird  135 

sue  the  hawks,  crows  and  jays,  not  from  mischievous  motives, 
but  in  defense  of  their  nests  and  young,  and  because  of  this 
fact  it  is  well  for  farmers  to  protect  them,  since  by  doing  so 
they  have  on  guard  sentinels  for  the  protection  of  their  do- 
mestic fowls  and  their  nests  from  the  rapacious  hawks  and  the 
egg  robbing  of  the  crows  and  jays. 

The  kingbird  was  one  of  the  favorites  of  Alexander  Wil- 
son, the  ornithologist,  who  not  only  had  a  scientific  knowledge 
of  the  value  of  our  birds,  but  could  tell  what  he  knew  about 
them  both  in  prose  and  verse.  In  his  account  of  the  kingbird 
he  makes  the  following  pathetic  appeal  for  its  protection : 

"Ah  friend!  good  friend!  forbear  that  barbarous  deed, 

Against  it  valor,  goodness,  pity  plead; 

If  e'er  a  family's  grief,  a  widow's  woe, 

Have  reached  thy  soul,  in  mercy  let  him  go! 

Yet,  should  the  tear  of  pity  naught  prevail, 

Let  interest  speak,  let  gratitude  prevail; 

Kill  not  thy  friend  who  thy  whole  harvest  shields, 

And  sweeps  ten  thousand  vermin  from  thy  fields; 

Think  how  this  dauntless  bird,  thy  poultry's  guard, 

Drove  every  hawk  and  eagle  from  thy  yard; 

Watched  round  thy  cattle  as  they  fed,  and  slew 

The  hungry  blackening  swarms  that  round  them  flew; 

Some  small  retu-rn,  some  little  right  resign, 

And  spare  his  life  whose  services  are  thine." 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 


June  4 — June  10. 

THE  PHOEBE. 

Order — Passeres.  Suborder — Clamatores. 

Family — Tyrranidee  Genus — Sayornis. 

Species — Sayornis  phoebe. 

Length— 6.25  to  7.00 ;  wing,  3.25  to  3.55 ;  tail,  3.00  to  3.40. 
Migration — North,  March;  south,  October. 

"A  little  tuft  of  feathers  gray 

That  snaps  its  bill  in  eager  glee 
When  e're  a  fly  is  caught  on  wing, 

Pull  forty  times  calls  out  Phoebe." 

The  phoebe  is  variously  known  as  the  phoebe  bird, 
peewit-flycatcher,  gnat-catcher,  and  the  bridge,  barn, 
and  house  pewee.  Like  its  cousin  the  kingbird,  it  is  a  mem- 
ber of  the  family  Tyrranidse,  which  is  composed  of  the  fly- 
catchers. In  my  earliest  childhood  a  pair  of  these  birds  an- 
nually nested  under  the  roof  and  against  the  chimney  of  our 
cabin  home,  and  in  season,  I  daily  heard  its  plaintiff  note. 

"So  faint  and  far  and  yet  so  near, 
'Pewee!   pewee!   pewee!'" 

137 


138  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

and  through  all  the  years  of  a  long  life  I  have  always  loved 
to  know  this  dear  little  bird  as  the  pewee.  With  Lowell  it 
was  otherwise,  for  did  he  not  write? 

"It  is  a  wee,  sad  colored  thing, 

As  shy  and  secret  as  a  maid, 
What  ere  in  choir  the  robin  sing, 

Pipes  its  own  name  like  one  afraid. 
It  seems  pain  prompted  to  repeat 

The  story  of  some  ancient  ill, 
But  Phoebe!   Phoebe!  sadly  sweet 

Is  all  it  says  and  then  is  still." 

The  pewee,  or  ornitholigically  speaking,  the  phoebe,  is 
s:omewhat  larger  than  the  English  sparrow.  Its  bill  is  of  a 
glossy  black  color  and  formed  exactly  like  that  of  the  king- 
bird ;  the  plumage  of  the  head  is  subcrested,  and  of  a  deep 
brownish  black ;  iris  of  the  eye  hazel ;  the  upper  parts  of  the 
body  are  of  a  dark  dusky  olive ;  wings  and  tail  deep  dusky,  the 
former  edged  with  yellowish  white  and  the  latter  forked  and 
widening  remarkably  toward  the  end ;  whole  lower  parts  of  a 
pale  delicate  yellow;  legs  and  feet  wholly  black.  The  sexes 
are  alike  in  appearance,  except  that  the  crest  of  the  female  is 
somewhat  more  brown  than  that  of  the  male. 

The  phoebe  is  a  bird  of  North  America  whose  range  ex- 
tends from  Cuba  and  Mexico  north  through  the  Eastern 
United  States  to  Newfoundland  and  Manitoba  and  west  to 
eastern  North  and  South  Dakota,  eastern  Nebraska,  Kansas, 
the  Indian  Territory  and  western  Texas.  It  winters  south 
from  North  Carolina  to  Cuba  and  Mexico.  Many  of  them  re- 
main in  Florida  and  the  southern  states  bordering  the  Gulf 
Coast  during  winter,  but  the  majority  pass  beyond  to  Cuba 
and  eastern  Mexico.  It  breeds  from  South  Carolina  northward 
throughout  its  summer  range.  Its  nest  like  that  of  the  robin 
is  made  of  moss,  grass  and  mud,  and  lined  with  hair  and 
feathers.  Its  nesting  habits  have  been  much  modified.  In 
former  times  it  was  a  wild  bird,  dearly  loving  a  cool,  wet 
woodland  retreat.  There  it  hunted  and  bathed  and  there  it 
built  its  nest  in  a  rocky  bank  or  on  a  ledge  of  rocks.  Hence, 
its  name,  water  pewee.  Wilson  tells  us  of  one  he  found  in  a 
cave  five  or  six  feet  high,  formed  by  the  undermining  of  water 


The  Phoebe  139 

below  and  the  projection  of  two  large  rocks  above.    He  writes 
of  its  surroundings  as  follows : 

"There  down  smooth  glistening  rocks  the  rivulet  pours, 

Till  in  a  pool  its  silent  waters  sleep, 
A  dark  browed  cliff,  o'ertopped  with  fern  and  flowers, 

Hangs,  grimly  louring,  o'er  the  glassy  deep; 
Above  through  every  chink  the  woodbine  creeps, 

And  smooth-barked  beeches  spread  their  arms  around, 
Whose  roots  cling  twisted  'round  the  rocky  steep; 

A  more  sequestered  scene  is  nowhere  found, 
For  contemplation  deep,  and  silent  thought  profound." 

In  later  times  the  phoebe  has  become  quite  domesticated 
and  loves  to  build  its  nest  about  the  structures  which  man  has 
erected.  Sometimes  its  nest  may  be  found  under  a  bridge  that 
is  constantly  being  used ;  hence,  its  name  of  bridge  pewee. 
But  its  favorite  place  for  a  nest  is  about  our  dwellings  and 
outbuildings,  and  this  is  why  it  is  called  the  house  pewee. 
The  usual  number  of  eggs  is  four  or  five.  These  are  ovate, 
and  white,  but  occasionally  are  spotted  with  reddish  brown. 
Incubation  lasts  about  twelve  days,  and  the  female  performs 
the  greater  part  of  the  duty.  She  is  a  close  sitter  and  loath  to 
leave  her  nest.  The  male  remains  in  the  vicinity  of  the  nest 
on  watch  for  possible  intruders,  of  which  the  cowbird  is  one 
of  the  most  harmful.  The  young  are  large  enough  to  leave  the 
nest  in  about  two  weeks.  Two  broods  and  sometimes  three 
are  reared  in  a  season. 

A  careful  examination  by  Professor  Beal  of  eighty  phoebe 
stomachs  "showed  that  over  ninety-three  per  cent,  of  the 
year's  food  consisted  of  insects  and  spiders,  while  wild  fruit 
constituted  the  remainder."  The  insects  were  mainly  injur- 
ious kinds,  including  click  beetles,  weevils,  May  beetles,  grass- 
hoppers and  flies.  His  conclusion  is  that  "There  is  hardly  a 
more  useful  species  about  the  farm,  and  it  should  receive 
every  encouragement  and  be  protected  from  cats  and  other 
marauders,  for  it  will  repay  such  care  a  hundredfold."  In  the 
language  of  Weed  and  Dearbond  in  Birds  and  Their  Rela- 
tion to  Man,  the  "Knowledge  of  its  exceeding  usefulness 
should  win  it  more  friends,  who  shall  encourage  its  increase  in 
every  way  possible,  for  surely  there  can  be  no  straining  of  the 


140  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

quality  of  mercy  in  protecting  these  feathered  creatures ;  such 
mercy  is  thrice  blessed — for  it  blesses  first  the  birds,  second 
ourselves  and  third  our  children  and  our  children's  children  in 
transmitting  to  them  undiminished  Nature's  heritage  of  Man's 
allies." 

In  migrating  north  the  male  pewee,  like  most  other  birds, 
comes  first  and  then  awaits  the  coming  of  his  mate.  This 
suggests  two  strange  problems  of  bird  life  which  as  yet  re- 
main unanswered.  Ornithologists  tell  us  that  the  pewees  mate 
for  life.  Then,  why  do  they  not  travel  together,  and  since 
they  do  not,  how  does  the  female  find  her  mate?  Perhaps  the 
answer  to  the  last  question  is,  that  the  pewee  having  once  de- 
termined to  build  its  nest  in  a  certain  locality,  becomes  at- 
tached to  it,  and  returns  to  it  year  after  year.  This  being 
true,  the  female  would  most  naturally  expect  to  find  her  mate 
at  the  old  nesting  place.  If  this  be  so,  then  will  you  tell  me 
how  they  so  unerringly  find  the  old  nesting  place  in  a  journey 
from  Cuba  and  Panama  to  Newfoundland?  That  the  pewees 
do  return  to  the  same  locality  has  been  well  estab- 
lished. Audubon  speaks  of  having  found  the  same  pair  of  birds 
occupying  a  familiar  nook  in  an  old  cavern  which  he  had  been 
accustomed  to  visit  for  a  number  of  years.  At  one  time  he 
fastened  to  the  legs  of  each  of  a  brood  of  young  birds,  the  off- 
spring of  this  pair,  a  ring  of  silver  thread ;  these  they  carried 
about  with  them  for  some  time,  and  in  the  following  spring 
two  of  them  were  seen  in  the  same  locality,  still  wearing  the 
silver  rings. 

The  readers  of  this  chapter  can  imagine  my  delight,  when 
in  1904  my  gardener  told  me  that  a  pair  of  phoebes  had  taken 
possession  of  the  roof  plate,  like  that  in  the  illustration,  under 
the  northeast  corner  of  the  roof  of  the  cottage  at  Buzzard's 
Roost  and  built  their  nest.  There  they  incubated  and  reared 
two  broods  during  the  season.  Directly  after  the  first  brood 
came  off  another  pair  took  possession  of  a  like  place  at  the 
southwest  corner  of  the  cottage  and  reared  a  brood.  The  gar- 
dener thinks  that  the  second  nest  was  built  by  a  pair  of  the 
young  from  the  brood  of  the  first  nest,  but  I  doubt  it.  I  re- 
joice in  the  fact,  however  this  may  be,  that  I  am  to  have  the 
companionship  of  these  birds  that  I  have  so  much  loved 


The  Phoebe  :4I 

through  life.  Out  of  that  warm  friendship  has  grown  the 
wish  that  in  that  country  which  is  to  come — the  better  land — 
we  may  have  the  birds  with  us.  And  why  not? 

''Not  every  bird  can  warble  sweet 

Or  wear  a  plumage  gay. 
The  modest  wren  is  trim  and  neat, 

The  phoebe's  breast  is  gray, 
Yet  he  who  notes  the  sparrow's  fall 

Holds  every  birdling  dear: 
His  earth  is  nesting  place  for  all, 

His  azure  skies  are  clear 
For  wings  that  flit  from  tree  to  tree 

Or  sail  the  clouds  above." 


N     3 

Z  15 


CHAPTER  XXV. 


June  11 — June  17. 

THE  BRONZED  GRACKLE. 

Order — Passeres.  Suborder — Oscines. 

Family — Icteridse.  Genus — Quiscalus. 

Species — Quiscalus  quiscula  aenus. 
Length — 13.00;  wing,  5.55  to  5.75;  tail,  5.50  to  6.20. 
Migration — North,  March;  south,  October. 

"Through  the  winter  long  and  dreary 

Bitter  night  and  snowy  day, 
Often  are  the  blackbirds  weary, 

Waiting,  wishing  for  May." 

The  family  Icteridae  is  composed  of  the  blackbirds,  orioles 
and  the  meadow  lark.  All  of  these  are  American  birds;  the 
majority  of  them  are  found  in  the  tropics.  They  form  a  con- 
necting link  between  the  crows  and  finches.  With  the  ex- 
ception of  the  orioles,  they  are  gregarious  after  the  nesting 
season.  Some  of  them  are  good  singers  and  some  of  them 
are  not.  The  bronzed  grackle  is  a  member  of  this  family.  In 
the  Middle  West  it  is  known  as  the  blackbird.  Its  other  names 
are  crow  blackbird,  purple  grackle,  keel-tailed  blackbird,  and 
maize  thief. 

Robert  Ridgway,  the  naturalist,  first  distinguished  the 
bronzed  from  the  purple  grackle.  He  says  that  "from  an  al- 
most equal  familiarity  with  the  two  birds,  we  are  able  to  say 
their  notes  differ  decidedly,  especially  those  of  the  male  dur- 

H3 


144  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

ing  the  breeding  season,  the  'song'  of  the  western  birds  being 
very  much  louder  and  more  musical  or  metallic  than  that  of  its 
eastern  relative."  The  bill  of  the  adult  male  bronzed  grackle 
is  heavy  at  the  base,  more  than  an  inch  long,  tapering  to  a 
sharp  point,  and  of  a  deep  black  color ;  iris  of  the  eye  is  of 
yellowish  white  and  quite  conspicuous ;  head,  neck  and  chest  of 
varying  color  from  greenish  blue  to  purple,  the  neck  and  chest 
sometimes  brassy  green ;  rest  of  plumage  above  uniform 
bronze  or  brassy  olive ;  wing  coverts,  secondaries  and  coverts 
of  the  tail,  rich  light  violet  in  which  the  red  prevails ;  the  rest 
of  the  wings,  and  cueniform  tail  are  black,  glossed  with  steel 
blue ;  tarsi  long  and  feet  large,  which  enables  them  to  walk 
well.  Adult  female  similar  to  the  male,  but  decidedly  smaller 
and  much  duller  in  color.  When  going  only  a  short  distance 
they  keel  their  tail  feathers,  holding  them  upward  from  the 
middle,  and  hence  their  name,  keel-tailed  grackle. 

This  grackle  occupies  the  Mississippi  Valley  and  Great 
Plains  as  far  west  as  the  Rocky  Mountains,  ranging  north- 
ward to  the  Great  Slave  Lake  and  southern  Newfoundland, 
and  east  coast  of  southern  New  England.  In  Canada  an d"  the 
northern  United  States  it  is  only  a  summer  resident,  but  in 
the  Southern  States  it  is  present  throughout  the  year,  and  in 
winter  its  numbers  are  increased  by  millions  of  migrants  from 
the  north.  It  does  not  occur  south  of  the  Gulf  States. 

The  bronzed  grackle  is  a  gregarious  species,  usually 
breeding  in  colonies  and  migrating  in  flocks.  Evergreen  trees 
are  their  favorite  nesting  sites,  and  this  brings  many  of  them 
to  the  lawns  about  our  homes.  The  nest  is  made  of  grass, 
weeds  and  mud  and  lined  with  grass  and  feathers.  The  num- 
ber of  eggs  to  a  clutch  varies  from  four  to  six.  They  vary 
much  in  color.  As  a  rule,  however,  the  groundwork  is  a  solid 
blue  or  green,  streaked  with  various  shades  of  dark  brown. 
Incubation  lasts  about  two  weeks.  Both  birds  share  the  labor 
of  incubation.  The  young  remain  in  the  nest  about  eighteen 
days. 

Much  has  been  written  about  the  "asthmatic  serenade" 
of  the  bronze'd  grackle,  and  but  little  in  appreciation  of  its 
musical  qualities.  Mr.  John  Burroughs  says,  "There  is  evi- 
dently some  music  in  the  soul  of  this  bird  at  this  season 


The  Bronzed  Crackle  145 

(the  springtime),  though  he  makes  a  sad  failure  in  getting  it 
out.  His  voice  always  sounds  as  if  he  were  laboring  under  a' 
severe  attack  of  influenza,  though  a  large  flock  of  them,  heard 
at  a  distance  on  a  bright  afternoon  of  early  spring,  produces 
an  effect  not  unpleasing.  The  air  is  filled  with  crackling, 
spluttering,  spurting,  semi-musical  sounds,  which  are  like  pep- 
per and  salt  to  the  ear."  And  this  reminds  me  that  Lowell 
wrote : 

"Fust  comes  the  blackbirds  clatt'rin  in  tall  trees, 
And  settlin'  things  in  windy  congresses; 
Queer  politicians,  though,  for  I'll  be  skinned 
If  all  on  'em  don't  head  against  the  wind." 

In  regard  to  their  economical  value,  Professor  Beal  in 
his  report  upon  The  Crow  Blackbirds  and  Their  Food,  says : 
"In  the  selection  of  their  food  the  crow  blackbird  is  almost 
omniverous.  Its  partiality  for  corn,  wheat,  rice,  oats  and 
others  grains  is  well  known  and  has  been  the  cause  of  nearly 
all  the  complaints  about  its  depredations.  This  diet  is  sup- 
plemented by  various  fruits,  berries,  nuts,  seeds  and  insects, 
the  latter  in  large  proportion.  When  feeding  on  grain  the 
birds  are  usually  in  large  flocks,  their  depredations  are  plain- 
ly visible,  and  they  are  almost  universally  condemned.  When 
breeding  they  are  less  gregarious,  and  the  good  work  they 
do  in  the  fields  is  scarcely  noticed,  although  at  this  season  the 
grubs  and  other  insects  devoured  compensate  in  a  large  meas- 
ure for  the  grain  taken  by  them."  Wilson  philosophically 
says:  "As  some  consolation,  however,  to  the  industrious  cul- 
tivator, I  can  assure  him  that  were  I  placed  in  his  situation,  I 
should  hesitate  whether  to  consider  these  birds  most  as 
friends  or  enemies,  as  they  are  particularly  destructive  to  al- 
most all  the  noxious  worms,  grubs  and  caterpillars  that  infest 
his  fields,  which,  were  they  allowed  to  multiply,  would  soon 
consume  nine-tenths  of  all  the  production  of  his  labor,  and 
desolate  the  country  with  the  miseries  of  famine !  Is  not  this 
another  striking  proof  that  Deity  has  created  nothing  in  vain ; 
and  that  it  is  the  duty  of  man,  the  lord  of  creation,  to  avail 
himself  of  their  usefulness,  and  guard  against  their  bad  ef- 
fects as  surely  as  possible,  without  indulging  in  the  barbar- 
ous and  even  impious  wish  for  their  utter  extinction?" 


146  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

After  the  breeding  season  is  over  these  birds  congregate 
in  flocks  of  hundreds  and  thousands  preparatory  to  their  mi- 
gration to  the  South.  It  is  then  that  they  are  accused  of  do- 
ing the  most  damage.  Much  less  of  this  would  occur  if  our 
forests  had  not  been  cleared  away.  They  are  very  fond  of  the 
berries,  seeds  and  nuts  of  our  trees  and  shrubs.  One  of  the 
prettiest  sights  that  I  have  witnessed  was  that  of  thousands 
of  these  birds  feeding  on  beechnuts  at  Buzzard's  Roost  in  the 
autumn  of  1902,  and  again  in  the  autumn  of  1906.  It  delight- 
ed my  soul  to  see  them  feeding  and  hear  their  "jangle."  The 
flocks  seemed  to  be  under  the  leadership  of  a  single  bird,  and 
when  he  gave  the  signal  the  entire  flock  took  wing  and  flew 
away  to  another  part  of  the  woods. 

The  wonder  with  me  is  that  more  of  us  do  not  appreciate 
farm  life  and  its  advantages  and  delights.  Such  a  life  brings 
one  so  closely  in  touch  with  Nature,  and  furnishes  such  an 
ample  opportunity  for  the  use  of  all  his  senses  and  for  study. 
As  a  farmer's  boy  I  thought  I 

"Knew  all  the  birds  that  came 

And  nested  in  our  orchard  trees; 

For  every  flower  I  had  a  name — 

My  friends  were  woodchucks,  toads  and  bees; 

I  knew  what  thrived  in  yonder  glen, 

What  plants  would  smooth  a  stone-bruised  toe — 

O,  I  was  learned  then, 

But  that  was  long  ago." 

In  that  "long  ago"  I  followed  the  plow  and  the  blackbirds  fol- 
lowed me  in  the  furrow.  Both  of  us  were  doing  that  which 
was  necessary  to  the  production  of  a  good  crop  of  corn.  I 
was  preparing  the  soil  for  it,  and  the  blackbirds  were  destroy- 
ing the  grubworms  and  cutworms,  which  were  so  destructive 
to  the  growing  corn.  The  birds  would  become  very  gentle 
and  manifested  no  fear  of  being  harmed,  and  I  enjoyed  their 
companionship.  "Three,"  their  call  note,  was  not  unpleasant 
to  my  ear,  and  the  strut  of  the  birds  as  they  walked  over  the 
freshly  plowed  ground  was  so  lordly,  and  their  coats  so  sleek 
and  black,  that  I  could  not  but  admire  them.  One  afternoon 


The  Bronzed  Grackle  147 

I  plowed  up  a  nest  of  land  terrapins  and  in  doing  so 
learned  that  the  terrapin  laid  eggs.  I  saved  the  contents  of 
that  nest  and  have  them  in  my  study.  If  I  had  only  continued 
collecting,  how  much  valuable  material  I  might  now  have  and 
how  much  I  might  have  learned  that  I  do  not  now  know !  It 
is  now  more  than  fifty  years  since  I  plowed  the  last  furrow, 
but  I  have  not  forgotten  the  good  old  days  when  I  was  a  farm- 
er's lad. 


COW  BIRD. 

(Molothrus  ater). 

%  Life-size. 


COPYRIGHT  19SO,  BY  A.  W.  MUMFORD,  CHICAGO 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 


June  18— June  24. 

THE  COWBIRD. 

Order — Passeres  Suborder — Oscines 

Family — Icteridae  Genus — Molothrus 

Species — Molothrus  ater. 

Length — 7.75  to  8.25  ;  wing,  4.00  to  4.60 ;  tail,  2.90  to  3.35. 
Migration — North,   March ;   south,    September. 

The  cowbird  has  many  different  names.  Formerly  it  was 
called  the  buffalo  bird  because  of  the  fact  that  it  attended 
the  American  bison  or  buffalo.  It  has  been  called  the  brown- 
headed  oriole  because  of  the  color  of  its  head  and  resemblance 
to  the  oriole ;  lazy  bird  because  it  will  not  build  a  nest  and 
care  for  its  young;  and  cow  bunting,  cow  blackbird  and 
cow  pen  bird  because  of  the  fact  that  it  attends  our  cattle 
and  often  is  found  in  our  barn  yards  with  them.  I  have  seen 
cowbirds  on  the  backs  of  cattle,  apparently  catching  the  flies 
that  so  much  annoy  them,  and  one  of  the  most  beautiful  pas- 
toral scenes  that  I  have  witnessed  was  that  of  a  large  herd  of 
cattle  on  a  hillside  meadow  field  attended  by  a  large  flock  of 
these  birds.  The  birds  kept  just  in  advance  of  the  cattle  and 
seemed  to  be  feeding  on  the  insects  which  were  disturbed  by 
their  grazing. 

The  bill  of  the  adult  male  cowbird  is  dark  brown,  sharp 
pointed  and  well  adapted  to  the  taking  of  insects,  and  the  base 
of  it  is  heavy  like  that  of  the  sparrow  family  and  well  fitted  to 
the  cracking  of  the  seeds  which  constitute  a  large  portion  of 

149 


150  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

its  food;  iris  of  the  eye  dark  hazel;  head,  neck  and  breast, 
coffee  brown;  rest  of .  its  plumage  glossy  black  with  metalic 
bluish  and  greenish  reflections ;  tail  slightly  forked ;  legs  and 
claws  glossy  black,  and  are  strong  and  muscular.  The  adult 
female  is  dull  grayish  brown  above,  a  shade  lighter  below,  and 
streaked  with  paler  shades  of  brown. 

The  cowbird  is  a  bird  of  North  America  whose  range  ex- 
tends from  Southern  Mexico  north  through  the  United  States 
and  the  southern  parts  of  the  Dominion  of  Canada,  in  the  east- 
ern portio'ns  to  about  latitude  north  49  degrees ;  in  the  interior 
to  Little  Slave  Lake,  southern  Athabasca ;  and  west  to  British 
Columbia,  eastern  Washington,  Oregon  and  southeastern  Cal- 
ifornia. It  winters  from  southern  Indiana  and  Illinois 
throughout  its  southern  range.  It  breeds  from  Georgia, 
Louisiana  and  Texas,  northward  throughout  its  northern 
range. 

The  males  come  north  in  advance  of  the  females.  They 
are  polygamous  birds  and  thoroughly  promiscous  in  their 
polygamous  habits.  It  is  true  that  the  male  seemingly  makes 
a  show  of  courting,  but  this  is  rather  a  show  of  fine  feathers 
than  a  desire  to  win  the  attention  of  a  particular  female;  and 
apparently  the  female  is  perfectly  indifferent  as  to  which  male 
she  surrenders  herself,  and  if  need  be,  to  any  number  of  them. 
So,  in  fact,  it  is  not  an  instance  of  true  polygamy  but  rather 
of  polyandry — that  is,  a  wife  having  many  husbands,  or  in 
other  words  a  case  of  free  love.  This  of  itself  makes  it  a  most 
despicable  bird ;  so  despicable,  that  so  far  as  I  know,  no  man 
or  woman  has  yet  been  inspired  to  write  even  a  stanza  in 
commendation  of  it. 

But-  this  is  not  the  worst  that  is  to  be  said  of  this  bird. 
No  illustration  of  the  nest  can  accompany  this  chapter,  for  it 
is  a  nestless  bird.  Not  only  is  this  true,  for  it  is  a  parasite  and 
by  its  stealth  compels  other  birds  to  rear  its  young.  In  doing 
this  mischief  it  has  not  the  courage  of  the  English  sparrow 
who  fights  for  what  it  wants,  but  is  a  sneaking  coward  that 
secretly  seeks  an  advantage  to  deposit  its  eggs  in,  the  nest  of 
another  bird.  In  this  respect  it  is  like  the  cuckoo  of  Europe 
but  unlike  any  other  bird  in  America.  When  the  female  is 
ready  to  deposit  her  egg,  she  leaves  her  associates  and  begins 


Vesper  sparrow's  nest  with  cow  bird  egg  in  it 


Kellogg 


Indigo  bunting's  nest  and  eggs 


Kellogg 


The  Cowbird  151 


the  search  for  the  nest  of  some  other  bird  in  which  to  deposit 
it.  When  this  is  done  she  returns  to  her  associates  and  gives 
no  further  attention  to  the  egg  or  the  young  that  will  be 
hatched  from  it.  She  is  entirely  devoid  of  maternal  affection 
and  love.  As  a  rule  the  eggs  are  deposited  in  the  nests  of  the 
smaller  birds.  The  illustration  accompanying  this  chapter 
shows  the  nest  of  a  vesper  sparrow 'with  three  speckled  eggs 
of  that  sparrow  and  one  large  one  of  the  cowbird.  Major 
Bendire  has  listed  ninety-one  different  kinds  of  birds  in  whose 
nests  cowbirds'  eggs  were  found  and  of  these  only  thirteen 
were  larger  than  the  cowbird  and  at  least  three-fourths  of 
them  were  smaller,  the  sparrows,  vireos  and  warblers  being 
the  greatest  sufferers.  The  evident  reason  why  the  cowbird 
selects  the  nests  of  the  smaller  birds  is  that  the  young  of  the 
foster  parents  may  perish  and  its  own  survive.  Remembering 
that  the  eggs  of  the  cowbird  hatches  in  ten  to  eleven  days,  and 
generally  in  advance  of  those  of  the  foster  parents,  it  is  easy 
to  understand  why  this  is  so. 

In  The  Oologist  of  August,  1893,  Mr.  M.  A.  White  tells 
of  an  experiment  with  a  chipping  sparrow  and  a  cowbird's 
egg.  "It  was,"  he  says,  "on  the  9th  of  June,  1891,  that  I  placed 
a  fresh  egg  of  the  cowbird  in  the  nest  of  a  chipping  sparrow 
containing  two  of  her  own  that  had  an  advance  of  one  and  a 
half  days'  incubation.  I  watched  results.  About  the  19th  Mr. 
Cowbird  emerged  from  his  prison  walls,  large  and  vigorous.  A 
day  later  a  little  sparrow  came  forth  from  his  delicate  shell, 
but  much  smaller,  and  exhibiting  less  strength  than  his  foster 
brother.  The  other  egg  failed,  to  hatch.  The  daily  increase  in 
the  size  of  the  cowbird  was  something  immense,  while  the 
younger  companion  seemed  to  diminish  rather  than  enlarge, 
until  finally,  at  the  end  of  three  days,  he  died,  evidently  for 
want  of  food,  as  the  cowbird,  being  the  larger,  greedily  de- 
voured everything  that  came  in  contact  with  his  capacious 
mouth."  Major  Bendire  in  commenting  upon  this  communica- 
tion says :  "Such  seems  to  be  the  fate  of  nearly  all  the  young 
which  have  the  misfortune  to  be  hatched  with  a  cowbird  for  a 
companion.  I  have  yet  to  see  a  nest  containing  young  birds 
of  both  species  more  than  a  few  days  old;  by  that  time  the 
rightful  offspring  are  smothered  or  crowded  out  of  the  nest 


152  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

by  their  stronger  foster  brother,  or  they  are  starved,  and  he 
then  absorbs  the  entire  attention  of  the  parents.  Only  in  cases 
where  the  true  offspring  is  as  large  or  larger  than  the  imposter 
is  there  any  likelihood  of  exception  to  the  rule.  It  can  readily 
be  seen  what  an  immense  amount  of  harm  a  cowbird  causes  in 
the  economy  of  nature,  granting  that  only  a  single  one  of  its 
eggs  is  hatched  in  a  season.  A  brood  of  insectivorous  and 
useful  birds  is  almost  invariably  sacrificed  for  every  cowbird 
raised,  and  they  are  certainly  not  diminishing  in  numbers." 

Some  of  the  birds  that  are  imposed  upon  by  the  cowbird, 
recognizing  the  fact,  abandon  their  nests  and  build  others ; 
others  add  additional  stories  to  the  nest  and  thus  cover  up 
their  own  and  the  eggs  of  the  cowbird.  Mr.  William  Hamil- 
ton Gibson  years  ago,  in  one  of  the  magazines,  beautifully  il- 
lustrated how  this  had  been  done  by  a  yellow  warbler,  and  in 
his  account  of  it  said,  after  having  taken  off  one  story,  "Have 
we  fully  examined  this  nest?  Even  now  the  lower  section 
seems  more  bulky  than  the  normal  nest  should  be.  Can  we 
not  trace  still  another  faint  outline  of  a  transverse  division  in 
the  fabric  about  an  inch  below  the  one  already  separated? 
Yes;  it  parts  easily  with  a  little  disentangling  of  the  fibres, 
and  another  spotted  egg  is  seen  within.  A  three  storied  nest ! 
A  nest  full  of  stories — certainly.  I  recently  read  of  a  speci- 
men containing  five  stories,  upon  the  top  of  which  downy  pile 
the  little  warbler  sat  like  patience  on  a  monument,  presumably 
smiling  at  the  discomfiture  of  the  outwitted  cowbird  para- 
site, who  had  exhausted  her  powers  of  mischief  for  the  season, 
and  doubtless  convinced  herself  of  the  folly  of  'putting  all  of 
her  eggs  in  one  basket.' ' 

The  cowbird  is  essentially  a  bird  of  the  open  fields  but 
often  is  found  in  the  vicinity  of  a  stream  or  swamp.  At  Buz- 
zard's Roost  I  have  most  frequently  found  them  next  to  Fall 
Creek.  They  eat  insects,  grasshoppers,  beetles,  etc.,  in  the 
summer,  and  take  seeds  of  weeds  and  occasionally  small  grain 
to  some  extent,  at  other  seasons.  No  doubt  the  cowbird  does 
much  good,  and  there  may  be  some  wise  purpose  for  its  ex- 
istence, but  if  there  is  I  have  not  discovered  it,  nor  do  I  know 
of  any  one  who  has.  It  has  no  song.  There  is  nothing  in  its 
life  to  make  it  joyous.  Why  should  they  sing? 


• 
S*. 

,.  v.  . 

s 


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A  v 
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CHAPTER  XXVII. 


June  25 — July  1. 


THE  MEADOW  LARK. 

Order — Passeres  Suborder — Oscines 

Family — Icteridse  Genus — Sturnella 

Species — Sturnella  magna. 

Length — 9.50  to  11.00;  wing,  4.40  to  5.00;  tail,  3.16. 
Migration — North,  February;  south,  November. 

"Up  from  the  dewy  grass,  while  yet  'tis  dark — 
On  trembling  pinions,  soars  the  meadow  lark; 
His  brilliant  breast  like  ruddy  .orange  glows; 
From  slender  throat  the  liquid  music  flows." 

Of  the  true  larks,  family  Alaudidse,  there  are  about  one 
hundred  species  found  in  different  parts  of  the  world.  Of 
these  the  sky  lark  of  Europe  is  the  best  known.  The  horned 
larks  are  the  only  representatives  of  the  family  native  to  this 
country.  Thus  it  is  seen  that  the  meadow  lark  is  not  now 
classed  by  the  systematists  with  the  lark  family,  but  that  it 
has  been  placed  in  the  family  Icteridse,  composed  of  the  black- 
birds, orioles,  etc.  Wilson  in  his  American  Ornithology  places 
it  with  the  larks,  and  justifies  himself  in  doing  so  by  saying, 
"He  differs  from  the  greater  part  of  his  tribe  in  wanting  the 
long  straight  hind  claw,  which  is  probably  the  reason  why  he 

153 


i54  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

has  been  classed,  by  some  later  naturalists,  with  the  starlings. 
But  in  the  particular  form  of  his  bill,  in  his  manners,  plumage, 
mode  and  place  of  building  his  nest,  nature  had  clearly  pointed 
out  his  proper  family." 

As  the  name  indicates,  the  meadow  lark  is  a  bird  of  the 
fields,  most  frequently  being  found  in  the  meadows,  and 
spends  the  greater  part  of  its  life  on  the  ground,  where  all  of 
its  food  is  obtained.  It  is  sometimes  called  the  old  field 
lark.  In  their  general  appearance  the  sexes  are  alike,  ex- 
cept that  the  female  looks  a  little  paler.  The  body  is  thick 
and  stout.  The  general  aspect  of  the  head  very  flat  from 
crown  to  end  of  bill,  which  is  one  and  a  half  inches  long,  of 
horn  color,  straight,  somewhat  heavy,  and  well  adapted  to 
taking  food  from  the  roots  of  plants.  A  median  line  of  light 
buff  or  yellow  extends  from  the  base  of  the  bill  over  the  top 
of  the  head;  crown  of  the  head  on  either  side  of  this  line  is 
dark  brown  and  a  line  of  the  same  color  extends  from  the  bill 
to  and  beyond  the  eye,  and  between  them  and  below  the  eye 
is  a  cream  colored  streak  and  patch ;  neck  and  back  highly 
variegated,  each  feather  being  blackish  with  a  terminal  reddish 
brown  area,  and  sharp  brownish  borders.  The  chin  and 
throat  are  yellow  with  a  large,  conspicuous  black  crescent  on 
the  breast;  sides  and  lower  belly  light  yellow  streaked  with 
black;  outer  tail  feathers  chiefly  white  and  very  conspicuous 
in  flight;  legs  and  feet  dark  brown,  feet  very  large  and  well 
adapted  to  walking. 

There  are  different  species  of  the  meadow  lark.  The 
species  sturnella  magna  is  found  in  Minnesota,  Iowa,  western 
Kansas  and  Indian  Territory,  and  northern  and  eastern  Texas 
and  all  of  the  country  east  of  this  line  of  states,  also  in  south- 
ern portions  of  Manitoba,  Ontario,  Quebec,  New  Brunswick 
and  Nova  Scotia.  It  breeds  in  all  parts  of  this  immense  dis- 
trict. In  winter  months  it  is  not  generally  found  north  of  a 
diagonal  line  commencing  on  the  Atlantic  coast  at  about  40 
degrees  north  and  running  southeasterly  to  38  degrees  north 
in  Kansas.  It  comes  into  the  Middle  West  the  last  part  of 
February,  with  its  call  of  "spring  of  the  year."  Usually  mat- 
ing does  not  begin  until  early  in  April.  Most  of  them  leave 
Indiana  by  the  first  of  November.  Occasionally  some  of 


The  Meadow  Lark  155 

them  may  be  found  later  than  that,  and  a  few  of  them  remain 
throughout  the  winter  when  it  is  not  severely  cold. 

Nidification  usually  begins  during  the  last  of  April  and 
the  first  of  May  and  lasts  through  the  greater  part  of  June, 
and  occasionally  fresh  eggs  are  found  during  the  first  part  of 
July.  It  is  possible  that  two  broods  are  hatched  occasionally, 
but  as  a  rule  only  a  single  brood  is  reared  in  a  season.  Both 
sexes  assist  in  the  construction  of  the  nest,  which  is  always 
placed  on  the  ground,  either  in  a  natural  depression  or  in  a 
little  hollow  scratched  out  by  the  birds,  alongside  a  bunch  of 
grass  or  weeds.  The  nest  proper  consists  of  a  slight  lining  of 
dry,  wiry  grass,  bits  of  stubble  and  weed  stalks ;  the  inner  cup 
is  finished  with  finer  materials  of  the  same  kind.  The  nest  is 
well  concealed  and  difficult  to  find.  As  a  rule  it  has  a  dome- 
like covering  over  it.  In  it  the  bird  lays  from  four  to  six  white 
eggs,  speckled  chiefly  at  the  larger  end  with  brown  and  lilac. 
Incubation  lasts  about  fifteen  days,  and  both  sexes  take  part 
in  it.  The  young  are  able  to  leave  the  nest  in  about  two  weeks. 
They  are  very  adept  in  hiding  at  the  slightest  sign  of  danger. 
After  they  are  able  to  provide  for  themselves  they  gather  into 
small  flocks  and  remain  in  the  vicinity  of  the  nest  until  the  lat- 
ter part  of  October  when  they  gradually  move  southward.  Oc- 
tober 10,  1905,  they  were  very  plentiful  in  our  meadow. 

To  me  the  migration  and  distribution  of  the  birds  has 
been  a  subject  of  much  interest.  They  are  at  the  right  place 
at  the  right  time  to  do  the  most- good.  The  weed  seed  glean- 
ers are  here  and  everywhere  when  needed  after  the  seeds  have 
ripened.  The  tree  bole  gleaners  are  ready  for  service  when 
the  greatest  quantity  of  larvae  and  eggs  of  the  pernicious  in- 
sects are  stored  away  in  the  crevices  and  under  the  bark  of 
the  boles.  And  with  the  coming  of  spring  when  the  eggs  of 
these  insects  are  hatching  and  the  insects  are  in  flight,  the 
great  army  of  insectivorous  birds  are  moving  north  and  de- 
vouring them,  and  that  which  is  especially  noticeable,  is  the 
fact  that  they  spread  over  all  portions  of  the  country,  and  like 
the  rain  that  falls,  doing  good  work  for  the  just  and  the  unjust 
alike.  This  is  particularly  true  of  the  meadow  lark.  Alike  in 
the  meadows  of  the  east  and  the  prairies  of  the  west,  and  the 
savannas  of  the  south,  its  clear  piping  lay  may  be  heard  in  the 


156  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

early  spring,  announcing  the  return  of  the  season  of  its  mat- 
ing and  nest  building.  A  few  of  them  may  be  found  nesting 
and  rearing  their  young  in  each  meadow  throughout  the  wide 
extent  of  their  range,  and  it  is  this  that  makes  them  so  valu- 
able to  us.  It  is  entirely  terrestrial  in  its  habits,  procuring  al- 
most its  entire  food  supply  from  the  insect  life  that  is  harm- 
ful to  our  meadow  and  prairie  lands.  For  six  months  of  the 
year  ninety  per  cent,  of  its  food  consists  of  such  insects  and 
during  August  and  September  over  ninety-nine  per  cent.  Even 
during  the  winter  months,  when  insect  life  is  dormant,  it  finds 
enough  that  is  hidden  below  the  surface  of  the  ground  or 
secreted  among  the  grass  to  furnish  a  very  considerable  por- 
tion of  its  diet.  Grasshoppers  and  crickets  compose  over 
twenty-five  per  cent,  of  its  food,  while  an  equally  large  share 
is  made  up  of  beetles,  among  them  weevils,  curculio  and  click 
beetles.  The  latter  during  the  larvae  stage  are  known  as  wire- 
worms,  and  often  destroy  seeds  before  they  have  germinated, 
and  thus  ruin  fields  of  corn  and  other  grain  at  the  outset. 
Meadow  larks  also  destroy  cutworms,  army  worms,  and  great 
numbers  of  the  pest  known  as  the  chinch  bug.  It  is  estimated 
that  this  bug  has  destroyed  in  the  United  States  during  the 
last  half  century  grain  to  the  value  of  over  $330,000,000. 

In  its  beauty  of  coloring,  its  usefulness,  the  sweetness  of 
its  song,  its  domestic  relations,  and  its  devotion  to  its  young 
the  meadow  lark  is  the  very  antithesis  of  the  cowbird,  treated 
of  in  the  preceding  chapter  and  whose  foul  progeny  is  fre- 
quently imposed  upon  it  to  be  cared  for.  Indeed  there  are 
very  few  birds,  if  any,  which  have  combined  in  them  more 
good  qualities  than  the  meadow  lark.  In  his  Wild  Wood 
Notes,  Mr.  Cheney  says :  "The  meadow  lark's  song  is  essen- 
tially tender  and  plaintive.  In  the  dewy  morning  and  toward 
evening  he  will  stand  a  long  time  upon  a  stump  or  large  rock 
or  rock-heap,  singing  at  intervals  little  snatches  of  melody ; 
occasionally  like  the  oriole  and  the  kingfisher,  giving  his  low, 
rapid  chattering  monotones.  It  is  a  favorite  pastime  with  him 
to  repeat  four  tones  many  times  in  succession,  with  rests  in- 
tervening, sometimes  adding  to  them  another  strain ;  and 
these  fragmentary  strains,  when  connected,  form  an  original 
and  interesting  song.  Now  and  then  there  is  an  exquisite 


The  Meadow  Lark  157 

subtle  tremor  in  the  notes  of  this  singer,  no  more  to  be  de- 
scribed than  the  odor  of  the  rose." 

"Minstrel  of  melody, 

How  shall  I  chant  of  thee, 
Floating  in  meadows  athrill  with  thy  song? 

Fluting  anear  my  feet, 

Plaintive  and  wildly  sweet — 
Oh,  could  thy  spirit  to  mortal  belong! 

Tell  me  thy  secret  art, 

How  thou  dost  touch  the  heart, 
Hinting  of  happiness  still  unpossessed; 

Say,  doth  thy  bosom  burn 

Vainly,  as  mine,  and  yearn 
Sadly   for  something  that   leaves   it  unblessed?" 


56 


BALTIMORE  ORIOLE. 

(Icterus  galbula). 
%  Life-size. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 


July  2— July  8. 

THE  BALTIMORE  ORIOLE. 

Order — Passeres  Suborder — Oscines 

Family — Icteridae  Genus — Icterus 

Sub  genus — Yphantes  Species — Icterus  galbula 

Length— 7.00  to  8.15 ;  wing,  3.50  to  3.90;  tail,  2.85  to  3.35. 
Migration — North,  April;  south,  August. 

"A  flash  of  gold  and  black  against  the  sky, 

A  perch  upon  the  orchard's  topmost  bough, 

A  strain  of  such  unmingled  ecstacy, 

The  lingering  echoes  thrill  the  silence  now, 

A  hanging  nest  so  beautifully  shaped, 

So  softly  lined,  close  woven,  firm  and  strong, 

A  bright  eyed  mate  to  brood  above  the  eggs, 

And  listen  to  that  rhapsody  of  song." 

The  genus  Icterus,  scientists  tell  us,  contains  nearly  forty 
species,  all  more  or  less  brightly  dressed,  in  orange,  yellow 
and  black.  None,  however,  is  more  beautiful  than  our  Balti- 
more oriole.  The  name  oriole  is  from  the  French  oriol  and 
that  from  the  Latin  aureolus,  meaning  a  little  bird  of  gold.  The 
Baltimore  oriole  gets  its  name  from  its  colors  which  are  black 
and  orange,  being  those  of  the  arms  of  livery  of  Lord  Balti- 
more. There  is  a  popular  tradition  as  to  how  it  got  the  name. 
The  story  is,  that  when  George  Calvert,  the  first  Lord  Balti- 
more was  worn  out  with  many  hardships  in  his  Newfoundland 
colony,  he  journeyed  into  Virginia.  There  he  was  much  im- 

159 


i6o  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

pressed  by  the  hosts  of  birds  that  thronged  the  forest,  but  none 
of  them  cheered  and  delighted  him  as  much  as  did  the  oriole 
with  its  gay  coat  and  sweet  song.  So  much  pleased  was 'he 
that  its  colors — orange  and  black — became  the  heraldic  colors 
of  the  first  lords  of  Maryland,  and  since  then  the  bird  has 
borne  his  name. 

In  its  migration,  the  Baltimore  oriole  comes  north  during 
the  latter  part  of  April ;  I  always  look  for  it  on  the  twenty- 
second  day  of  that  month.  It  returns  south  by  the  middle  of 
September.  Its  range  extends  north  to  the  southern  border 
of  the  Dominion  of  Canada,  from  Nova  Scotia  and  southern 
New  Brunswick  westward  through  Ontario  and  Manitoba  to 
Saskatchewan,  where  it  reaches  its  northern  known  limits  in 
latitude  50  degrees ;  west  to  eastern  Assiniboia,  the  eastern 
part  of  Montana,  Colorado  and  Texas ;  south  in  winter 
through  Mexico  and  Central  America  to  Panama.  The  males 
come  north  first,  and  until  the  females  come  are  very  restless 
and  keep  up  an  almost  continuous  calling.  The  one  across 
the  street  from  Elmhurst  seems  to  say,  "Come  to  me  dearie, 
come  to  me  dearie,"  and  is  much  delighted  when  she  comes. 
By  this  it  is  believed  that  they  mate  for  life.  It  certainly  is 
true  that  they  are  much  devoted  to  each  other,  and  that  when 
a  pair  of  them  have  located,  they  or  others  of  their  kind,  will 
be  found  in  that  locality  for  many  years  afterwards: 

The  Baltimore  oriole  is  universally  admired,  both  for  the 
richness  of  his  color  and  the  sweetness  of  his  song.  The  bill 
of  the  adult  male  is  almost  straight,  strong,  tapering  to  a  sharp 
point,  black,  and  sometimes  lead  colored  above,  the  lower 
mandible  light  blue  towards  the  base ;  iris  of  the  eye  hazel ; 
the  head,  neck  all  around,  forepart  of  the  back,  wings  and  part 
of  the  tail  black;  the  greater  wing  coverts  are  margined  with 
white ;  the  lesser  wing  coverts,  the  posterior  of  the  back,  and 
the  whole  under  parts,  bright  orange,  deepening  into  vermillion 
on  the  breast;  the  black  on  the  shoulders  is  also  divided  by 
a  band  of  orange ;  tips  of  the  two  middle  tail  feathers  and  the 
ends  of  the  others  are  of  a  dull  orange ;  tail  slightly  forked ; 
legs  and  feet  light  blue  or  of  a  lead  color.  The  adult  female  is 
half  an  inch  shorter  than  the  male,  with  the  head,  neck  and 
forepart  of  the  back,  mixed  with  dull  yellow ;  hind  part  of  the 


The  Baltimore  Oriole  161 

back,  light  brownish  yellow,  brightest  on  the  rump;  lower 
parts  duller  than  his.  The  bill  of  this  oriole  is  well  propor- 
tioned, sharp  as  a  needle  and  is  very  useful  as  a  weapon  of  de- 
fense, and  well  adopted  to  taking  food  and  to  the  weaving  of 
her  nest. 

"Of  all  the  weavers  that  I  know, 

The  oriole  is  the  best; 
High  on  the  branches   of  the  tree 
She  hangs  her  nest." 

The  nest  is  wonderfully  made  and  when  completed  is  one 
of  our  finest  specimens  of  bird  architecture.  It  is  a  pensile 
nest,  that  is,  it  is  in  the  form  of  a  long  pouch  and  usually  sus- 
pended from  the  extremities  of  the  limbs  of  the  tree  upon 
which  it  is  found.  Trees  with  long,  drooping  branches,  such 
as  the  elm  or  willow  are  preferred  for  this  purpose.  The  ma- 
terials used  for  the  frame  work  of  the  nest  consist  principally 
of  plant  fibre  such  as  that  of  the  hemp  and  milkweed,  and 
often,  when  located  near  our  habitations,  of  horsehair,  bits  of 
twine,  yarn,  strips  of  grapevine,  bark,  etc.  I  have  several  of 
these  nests,  most  of  them,  having  been  sent  to  me  by  my 
friend,  Mr.  Max  Munte.  One  of  them  is  an  unfinished  nest 
and  is  made  entirely  of  horse  hair.  Evidently  it  is  but  the 
warp  of  the  nest  without  the  woof.  Another  is  like  it  except 
that  being  a  finished  nest  it  has  the  woof  woven  into  the  warp 
and  this  consists  entirely  of  plant  fibres.  Another  has  the 
same  warp  but  a  woof  of  twine  and  plant  fibres.  As  I  have 
said  the  nest  is  usually  suspended  to  the  extremities  of  slen- 
der branches  of  trees  and  the  elm  is  one  of  their  favorite  trees. 
Across  the  street  from  Elmhurst  is  one  of  these  trees,  and  for 
years  a  pair  of  orioles  have  suspended  their  nest  from  its 
drooping  branches,  brooded  and  reared  their  young.  At  Buz- 
zard's Roost,  favorite  places  for  their  nests  are  the  out- 
stretched limbs  which  overhang  Fall  Creek.  Occasionally 
these  birds  suspend  their  nests  in  the  limbs  of  an  erect  tree, 
preferably  the  maple,  like  that  in  the  illustration.  I  have  one 
of  these  in  my  collection  which  was  sent  to  me  by  Dr.  Carl- 
ton  Evans,  an  Ohio  friend.  It  is  a  fac-simile  of  that  in  the  il- 
lustration, except  that  it  is  constructed  entirely  of  twine  and 
yarn:  The  eggs  are  four  to  six  in  number,  and  of  a  very  pale 


1 62  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

gray,  drab  or  almost  white  color,  dotted  at  the  large  end  with 
purplish  spots,  and  covered  at  the  smaller  end  with  a  great 
number  of  interesting  lines  of  the  same  hue.  Incubation  lasts 
about  fourteen  days,  and  the  young  leave  the  nest  in  about 
the  same  length  of  time. 

"Two  weeks  elapsed,  behold  a  helpless  crew! 
Claim  all  her  care  and  affection  too; 
On  wings  of  love  the  assiduous  nurses  fly, 
Flowers,  leaves  and  boughs,  abundant  food  supply; 
Glad  chants  their  guardian  as  abroad  he  goes, 
And  waiving  breezes  rock  them  to  repose." 

The  song  of  the  Baltimore  oriole  is  a  clear  mellow  whis- 
tle, repeated  at  short  intervals  as  he  gleans  among  the  trees. 
F.  Schuyler  Mathews  in  his  Wild  Birds  and  Their  Music, 
says  he  "is  a  musician  in  the  fullest  sense  of  the  word.  His 
ability  to  whistle  a  well-constructed  song  is  unquestionable. 
His  only  fault  is  his  fragmentary  treatment  of  a  good  theme, 
and  chary  way  of  singing  it.  He  is  lavish  with  calls  and 
chatterings,  and  devotes  too  much  time  to  preliminaries  be- 
fore he  begins  on  the  song  that  he  is  well  able  to  round  out  to 
a  finish."  His  "calls  and  chatterings"  have  had  various  inter- 
pretations. Nuttall  describes  one  as  "tshippe-tshayia-too-too- 
tshippe-tshippa-too-too."  Major  Bendire  says  his  song  is  like 
"hioh,  hioh,  tweet,  tweet,"  and  another  something  like,  "whee- 
he-he,  whee-he-he,  oh  whee-he,  he-woy-woy!"  Mr.  Butler  de- 
scribes one  heard  after  the  first  of  June  as  "who-ee,  here-we- 
are,"  or  "who-ee-who-ee-who-ee-who."  Mr.  Cheney  in  giving 
an  account  of  one  he  heard  on  the  22d  of  May,  1884,  and  con- 
tinuing thereafter  through  the  season,  says,  "a  remarkable 
feature  is  that  the  words,  'murly,  curly,  key!  chickerway, 
chick-er-way,  chick-er-way,  chew'  were  as  plainly  formed  as 
the  whipporwills'  name  when  he  tells  it  to  all  the  hills."  And 
as  Mathews  adds,  he  "is  not  without  the  harsh,  grating,  un- 
musical note  that  belongs  to  his  family,  icteridse,  for  some- 
times you  hear  a  scolding  note  issue  from  his  bill  that  is 
reminiscent  of  the  grackle." 

By  an  exhaustive  report  Professor  Beal  has  shown  the 
great  value  of  the  Baltimore  oriole  as  a  destroyer  of  injurious 
insects.  The  report  was  based  upon  the  examination  of  one 


The  Baltimore  Oriole  163 

hundred  and  thirteen  stomachs.  The  food  for  the  whole  sea- 
son consisted  of  83.4  per  cent,  of  insect  matter  and  16.6  per 
cent,  of  vegetable  matter.  The  most  important  item  of  the 
insect  food  consisted  of  caterpillars,  which  aggregated  more 
than  34  per  cent,  of  the  whole.  Beetles  of  various  families 
and  species  ranked  next  to  the  caterpillars  in  abundance. 
Those  most  eaten  were  the  click  or  snapping  beetles.  These 
beetles  and  their  larvae,  known  as  wireworms,  are  among 
the  most  destructive  insects  with  which  the  farmer  has  to  con- 
tend. Of  them  Professor  Comstock  says:  "There  is  hardly  a 
cultivated  plant  that  they  do  not  infest;  and  working  as  they 
do,  beneath  the  surface  of  the  ground,  it  is  extremely  difficult 
to  destroy  them.  Not  only  do  they  infest  a  great  variety  of 
plants,  but  they  are  apt  to  attack  them  at  the  most  susceptible- 
period  of  their  growth,  before  they  have  attained  sufficient  size 
and  strength  to  withstand  the  attack,  and  often  the  seed  is  de- 
stroyed before  it  is  germinated.  Thus  fields  of  corn  or  other 
grain  are  ruined  at  the  outset."  For  its  vegetable  food  the 
oriole  prefers  fruit,  but  also  eats  grain  and  the  seeds  of  weeds. 
The  report  showed  that  six  kinds  of  fruits  were  found  in  the 
stomachs,  namely,  cherries,  raspberries,  blackberries,  mulber- 
ries, Juneberries  and  elderberries,  grapes  and  peas,  but  the 
harm  done  to  these  is  probably  overestimated.  The  report 
closes  with  these  words,  "let  the  farmer  continue  to  hold  his 
good  opinion  of  the  oriole  and  accord  it  the  protection  it  so- 
well  deserves." 


Y 


•*«* 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 


July  9— July  15. 

THE  BOBOLINK. 

Order — Passeres  Suborder — Oscines 

Family — Icteridse  Genus — Dolichonyx 

Species — Dolichonyx  oryziverous. 

Length — 6.30  to  7.60 ;  wing,  3.70  to  4.00 ;  tail,  2.60  to  2.90. 
Migration — North,  May;  south,  July. 

"Bobolink,  that  in  the  meadow 
Or  beneath  the  orchard's  shadow 

Keepest  up  a  constant  rattle 

Joyous  as  my  children's  prattle, 

Welcome  to  the  north  again! 
Welcome  to  mine  eye  the  sight 

Of  the  buff,  the  black  and  white!" 

The  bobolink,  a  bird  of  our  meadows,  has  many  other 
names,  such  as  American  ortolan,  white-winged  blackbird, 
skunk  blackbird,  Maybird,  butterbird,  ricebird,  rice-bunting, 
reed-bird  and  meadowbird,  and  each  of  these  has  been  sug- 
gested by  some  characteristic  of  the  bird. 

The  bill  of  the  adult  male  bobolink  is  short  and  heavy, 
like  that  of  a  sparrow,  and  of  a  bluish  brown  color;  iris  of 
eye,  hazel ;  when  he  comes  to  us  in  the  spring  and  during  the 
period  of  nidification  the  plumage  of  the  upper  part  of  his 
head,  shoulders,  wings,  tail  and  the  whole  of  the  under  part 
of  his  body  is  black ;  nape  and  back  of  neck  brownish  yellow ; 
back  black,  seamed  with  brownish  yellow ;  scapulars,  edges 

165 


1 66  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

of  wings,  rump  and  tail  coverts  are  of  a  dull  white ;  tail 
formed  like  those  of  the  woodpecker,  and  often  used  in  the 
same  manner;  legs  and  feet  of  a  brownish  flesh  color.  The 
female,  the  color  of  whose  plumage  the  male  assumes  after 
the  breeding  season,  is  yellowish  brown ;  crown  and  back  con- 
spiciously  streaked  with  black,  nape  and  rump  with  smaller 
markings ;  crown  with  central  stripe,  and  stripe  over  each  eye 
olive-buff,  or  olive-gray;  wings  and  tail  feathers,  sharp  point- 
ed. Below,  yellowish  or  whitish,  shaded  with  buffy  or  olive ; 
sides  and  lower  tail-coverts,  more  or  less  streaked  with  black ; 
bill,  brown. 

"Modest  and  shy  as  a  nun  is  she, 
Pretty  and  quiet,  with  plain  brown  wings, 

Passing  at  home  a  patient  life 
Broods  in  the  grass  while  her  husband  sings, 

'Bobolink,  bobolink, 

Spink,  spank,  spink.' " 

In  the  bobolink  we  have  another  interesting  study  in  mi- 
gration. They  come  north  in  May  and  return  south  the  last 
of  August,  although  some  of  them  linger  until  the  middle  of 
September.  The  males  come  north  in  flocks  in  advance  of  the 
females.  On  my  way  to  Buzzard's  Roost  in  May,  1902,  I 
noticed  that  two  medium  sized  wild  cherry  trees  ahead  of  me 
were  full  of  birds.  Before  I  got  close  enough  to  them  to 
identify  them  by  sight,  I  was  able  to  do  so  by  hearing  their 
joyous  song  of, 

"Winkle-wankle-wonkle-winkle, 
Tee-a,  tee-a,  tumple,  tinkle," 

and  knew  that  they  were  bobolinks.  A  jollier  and  happier  set 
of  birds  than  they  were  I  have  never  seen.  The  northward 
journey  from  their  winter  home  in  South  America  begins  in 
March  and  April.  Of  their  advance  in  Florida,  Captain  Wil- 
liam Miles  Hazzard  in  a  letter  to  Major  Bendire  says :  "The 
bobolinks  made  their  appearance  here  during  the  latter  part 
of  April.  At  that  season  their  plumage  is  white  and  black, 
and  they  sing  merrily  when  at  rest.  Their  flight  is  always  at 
night.  In  the  evening  there  are  none.  In  the  morning  their 
appearance  is  heralded  by  the  popping  of  whips  and  the  firing 


The  Bobolink  167 


of  musketry  by  the  bird  minders  in  their  efforts  to  keep  the 
birds  from  pulling  up  the  rice.  This  warfare  is  kept  up  until 
about  the  25th  of  May,  when  they  suddenly  disappear  at 
night."  They  then  are  called  Maybirds. 

"In  the  more  southern  part  of  their  breeding  range,"  says 
Major  Bendire,  "the  young  are  generally  large  enough  to 
fly  by  July  1.  They  gather  then  in  little  flocks  with  the  par- 
ents (the  male  assuming  the  garb  of  the  female  about  that 
time)  and  are  soon  thereafter  led  by  them  to  the  marshes,  near 
the  seashore,  in  quest  of  their  favorite  food,  which  at  this  time 
of  the  year  is  Indian  rice."  They  then  are  called  Reed 
birds.  Captain  Hazzard  in  his  letter  to  Major  Bendire,  in 
describing  their  southern  migration,  says :  "Their  next  ap- 
pearance is  in  a  dark  yellow  plumage,  as  the  Ricebird.  There 
is  no  song  at  this  time,  but  instead  a  chirp  which  means  ruin 
to  any  rice  found  in  the  milk.  My  plantation  record  will 
show  that  for  the  past  ten  years,  except  when  prevented  by 
stormy  south  or  southwest  winds,  the  Ricebirds  have  come 
punctually  on  the  night  of  the  21st  of  August,  apparently  com- 
ing from  seaward.  All  night  their  chirp  can  be  heard  passing 
over  our  summer  homes  in  South  Island,  which  is  situated 
six  miles  to  the  east  of  our  plantations,  in  full  view  of  the 
ocean.  Curious  to  say,  we  have  never  seen  this  flight  during 
the  day.  During  the  nights  of  August  21,  22,  23  and  24, 
millions  of  the  birds  make  their  appearance  and  settle  in  the 
ricefields.  From  the  21st  of  August  to  the  25th  of  Septem- 
ber our  every  effort  is  to  save  our  crop."  They  are  so  des- 
tructive to  the  rice  crop  that  it  is  estimated  they  directly  or 
indirectly  cause  an  annual  loss  of  $3,000,000. 

From  the  rice. fields  they  migrate  to  their  winter  homes 
in  South  America.  Of  this  Mr.  Wells  W.  Cooke  says :  "A 
still  more  direct  route,  but  one  requiring  longer  single  flights, 
stretches  from  Florida  to  South  America  via  Cuba  and  Ja- 
maica. The  150  miles  between  Florida  and  Cuba  are  crossed 
by  tens  of  thousands  of  birds  from  60  different  species.  About 
half  the  species  take  the  next  flight  of  90  miles  to  the  beautiful 
Jamaica  mountains.  Here  a  500  mile  stretch  of  islandless 
ocean  confronts  them,  and  scarcely  a  third  of  their  number 
leave  the  forest-clad  hills  for  the  unseen  beyond.  Chief  among 


1 68  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

these  dauntless  voyagers  is  the  bobolink,  fresh  from  despoiling 
the  Carolina  rice  fields,  waxed  fat  from  his  gormandizing,  and 
so  surcharged  with  energy  that  the  500  mile  flight  to  South 
America  on  the  way  to  the  waving  pampas  of  southern  Brazil 
seems  a  small  hardship.  Indeed,  many  bobolinks  appear  to 
scorn  the  Jamaica  resting  point  and  to  compass  in  a  single 
flight  the  700  miles  from  Cuba  to  South  America.  With  the 
bobolink  is  an  incongruous  company  of  traveling  companions 
— a  vireo,  a  king  bird,  and  a  nighthawk  that  summer  in 
Florida;  the  queer  duck-will's- widow  of  the  Gulf  States;  the 
two  New  England  cuckoos ;  the  trim  Alice  thrush  from  Que- 
bec ;  the  cosmopolitan  bank  swallow  from  frozen  Labrador, 
and  the  black-poll  warbler  from  far  Alaska.  But  the  bobo- 
links so  far  outnumber  the  rest  of  the  motley  crew  that  the 
passage  across  the  Caribbean  Sea  from  Cuba  to  South  America 
may  with  propriety  be  called  the  'bobolink  route.'  Occasion- 
ally the  mellow-voiced  wood  thrush  joins  the  assemblage,  or 
a  green-gold  tanager  which  will  prepare  in  the  winter  home 
its  next  summer  livery  of  flaming  scarlet.  But  the  'bobolink 
route'  as  a  whole  is  not  popular  with  other  birds,  and  the 
many  that  traverse  it  are  but  a  fraction  of  the  thousands  of 
North  American  birds  that  spend  the  winter  holiday  in  South 
America." 

The  nest  of  the  Bobolink  is  hard  to  find.  I  have  never 
found  but  one  of  them ;  yet  I  am  sure  I  have  been  in  the  im- 
mediate locality  of  several.  It  is  built  on  the  ground  and 
composed  of  dry  grass,  straw  and  weeds  and  is  placed  in  a 
slight  depression  of  the  ground.  In  it  are  found, 

"Six  white  eggs  on  a  bed  of  hay, 
Freckled  with  brown  a  pretty  sight! 

Where  the  mother  sits  all  day; 
Robert  is  singing  with  all  his  might, 

Nice,  good  wife  that  never  goes  out, 
Keeping  house  while  I  frolic  about." 

In  prose  and  poetry  the  writers  have  tried  to  describe 
his  song,  but  have  wholly  failed  to  accomplish  it.  And  this 
is  so  because  his  song  is  utterly  indescribable — there  is  no- 
thing like  it.  Mr.  Washington  Irving  in  his  graphic  des- 
cription of  the  bird  aptly  tells  how  it  is  done.  He  says,  "He 


The  Bobolink  169 


perches  on  the  topmost  twig  of  a  tree,  or  on  some  long  flaunt- 
ing weed,  and  as  he  rises  and  sinks  with  the  breeze,  pours 
forth  a  succession  of  rich,  tinkling  notes,  crowding  one  upon 
another  like  the  outpouring  melody  of  the  skylark,  and  pos- 
sessing the  same  rapturous  character.  Sometimes  he  pitches 
from  the  summit  of  a  tree,  begins  his  song  as  soon  as  he  gets 
upon  the  twig,  and  flutters  tremulously  down  to  the  earth,  as 
if  overcome  with  ecstasy  at  his  own  music." 

And  this  is  an  epitome  of  one  of  the  most  interesting  birds 
of  our  avi  fauna,  and  whose  annual  stay  with  us  is  told  by  Mr. 
John  Burroughs  so  beautifully  in  verse. 

"Daisies,  clover,  buttercup, 

Red-top,  trefoil,  meadow  sweet, 
Ecstatic  wing  soaring  up, 

Then  gliding  down  to  grassy  seat. 

Sunshine,  laughter,  mad  desires, 

May  day,  June  day,  lucid  skies, 
All  reckless  things  that  love  inspires, 

The  gladdest  bird  that  sings  and  flies. 

Meadows,  orchards,  bending  sprays, 

Rushes,  lillies,  billowy  wheat, 
Song  and  frolic  all  his  days, 

A  feathered  rondeau  all  complete. 

Pink  bloom,  gold  bloom,  fleabane  white, 

Dew  drop,  rain  drop,  cooling  shade, 
Bubbling  throat  and  hovering  flight, 

And  jubilant  heart  as  e'er  was  made." 


t^f  m  "^    ^V  » 


FROM  COL.  CHI     ACAD.    SCIENCES 

150 


DICKCISSEL. 

(Spiza  americana). 

?<  Life-size. 


CHAPTER  XXX. 


July  16— July  22. 

THE  DICKSISSEL. 

Order — Passeres  Suborder — Oscines 

Family — Fringillidse  Genus — Spiza 

Species — Spiza  americana 

Length — 5.75  to  6.80 ;  wing,  2.80  to  3.30 ;  tail,  2.35  to  2.90. 
Migration — North,  May;  south,  August. 

"Sir  Richard  Cecil  was  a  'night  of  very  high  degree. 
He  came  to  preach  some  English  fad  in  North  Amerikey; 
But  a  clever  Indian  medicine  man  transformed  him  to  a  bird, 
With  the  funniest,  drollest,  driest  note  that  ever  yet  was  heard; 
And  now  he  sings  the  livelong  day,  from  mullin  or  from  thistle, 
The  first  of  his  intended  speech,  "Oh,  I  am  Dick,  Dick  Cissell." 

The  dickcissel  is  a  member  of  the  family  Fringillidae.  For- 
merly it  was  known  as  the  black-throated  bunting.  Some  thir- 
ty or  forty  years  ago  it  was  a  locally  common  bird  in  the  Mid- 
dle Atlantic  States,  but  about  that  time  it  seems  to  have 
changed  its  range,  and  is  now  rarely  found  east  of  the  Alle- 
ghenies.  It  made  its  appearance  in  the  Middle  West  about 
the  time  of  its  disappearance  east  of  the  Alleghenies,  and  now, 
as  Mr.  Butler  says,  "is  an  abundant  summer  resident."  It  is 
also  known  as  the  meadow  lark  and  little  field  lark. 

The  bill  of  the  adult  male  dickcissel  is  conical,  acute  and 
of  a  grayish-blue  color ;  iris  of  the  eye  hazel ;  forepart  of  the 
head  greenish-olive;  hind  head,  neck  and  cheeks  dark  ash- 
gray;  narrow  pale  yellow  stripe  over  the  eye;  back  bright 

171 


172  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

chestnut,  streaked  with  black ;  lesser  and  middle  wing  coverts 
cinnamon  rufous ;  greater  wing  coverts  dusky  centrally,  edged 
with  pale- wood  brownish ;  rump  similar  but  paler,  and  with- 
out streaks ;  upper  tail  coverts  brownish  gray  with  dusky  shaft 
streaks ;  chin  white ;  throat  black ;  sides  gray,  and  abdomen 
white ;  legs  and  feet  brown ;  toes  long,  slender  and  furnished 
with  long,  well  curved  claws.  The  adult  female  is  similar  to 
the  male,  except  that  there  is  less  yellow  on  her  breast;  the 
black  patch  on  the  throat  is  replaced  by  spots  or  streaks  and 
the  top  of  the  head  is  more  brownish. 

As  I  have  already  stated,  the  summer  range  of  the  dick- 
cissel  has  changed,  and  now  its  range  extends  from  Columbia 
and  Trinidad  north  to  Ontario,  Michigan,  Minnesota  and 
North  Dakota.  Its  breeding  range  extends  from  South  Caro- 
lina to  Ontario  and  from  the  Allegheny  Mountains  to  the  base 
of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  They  come  north  about  the  first  of 
May  and  return  south  during  the  first  half  of  August.  The 
males  come  north  in  flocks  and  in  advance  of  the  females.  In 
the  vicinity  of  Indianapolis  they  are  abundant  in  the  upland 
meadows.  The  nesting  season  begins  in  May.  The  nest  is 
made  on  or  near  to  the  ground,  of  leaves,  grasses,  rootlets, 
corn  husks  and  weed  stems ;  the  lining  is  of  fine  grass  and  often 
horse  hair,  and  is  built  by  the  female.  Mr.  Baskett  in  his 
Story  of  the  Birds,  says,  "the  most  casual  observer  may 
note  how  very  fastidious  they  (the  birds)  are  in  choosing  the 
proper  location  and  material  for  their  homes,  especially  the 
latter.  *  *  *  After  a  certain  substance  is  chosen,  how- 
ever, the  birds  continue  to  use  that  from  a  certain  definite  re- 
gion. Thus  a  dickcissel  selected  one  year  all  her  straws  from 
the  midst  of  a  meadow  which  seemed  to  the  observer  to  have 
the  same  material  on  its  nearer  edge.  It  may  be  just  possible 
that  a  convenient  dead  weed  on  which  her  mate  sat  and  sang 
while  she  worked  had  something  to  do  with  it,  for  he  went 
with  her  to  the  neighborhood  of  the  nest  and  sang  there  and 
then  preceded  her  to  the  dead  weed  again."  The  eggs  are 
pale  blue  and  three  to  five  constitute  a  clutch. 

Mr.  Ridgway,  in  his  Birds  of  Illinois,  says:  "While  some 
other  birds  are  equally  numerous,  there  are  few  that  announce 
their  presence  as  persistently  as  this  species.  All  day  long,  in 


The  Dickcissel  173 


spring  and  summer,  the  males,  sometimes  to  the  number  of 
a  dozen  or  more  for  each  meadow  of  considerable  extent,  perch 
upon  the  summits  of  tall  weed  stalks  or  fence  stakes,  at  short 
intervals,  crying  out,  'See,  see — Dick,  Dick,  Cissel,  Cissel;' 
therefore  'Dick  Cissel'  is  well  known  to  every  farmer's  boy 
as  well  as  to  all  who  visit  the  country  during  the  season  of 
clover  blossoms  and  wild  roses,  when  'Dame  Nature'  is  in  her 
most  joyous  mood." 

The  dickcissel  in  some  respects  resembles  the  meadow 
lark,  and  hence  its  name  little  meadow  lark  and  little  field  lark. 
It  has  the  black  patch  on  a  yellow  throat  and  is  a  bird  of  our 
clover  fields.  Just  as  the  clover  was  in  full  bloom  in  1906  I  had 
occasion  to  pass  through  one  of  these  fields  just  at  dusk.  By 
their  chattering  and  flight,  I  observed  that  large  numbers  of 
some  species  of  birds  were  going  to  roost  in  the  clover,  but 
could  not  tell  what  kind  of  birds  they  were.  The  next  morn- 
ing I  repassed  that  way,  and  discovered  that  the  birds  were 
dickcissels.  By  the  last  of  July  almost  all  of  them  were 
gone.  Dr.  Judd  says :  "Most  sparrows  are  gregarious,  but 
dickcissels  move  about  in  pairs  or  little  family  groups.  In 
many  places  they  are  so  numerous  that  a  score  of  individuals 
may  be  found  in  every  hay  field  and  meadow ;  and  the  species 
is  as  characteristic  of  such  localities  as  the  robin  is  of  the  New 
England  lawn  or  the  mocking  bird  of  the  Florida  plantation. 
The  song  consists  of  a  series  of  monotonous  insect  notes,  re- 
peated incessantly  from  morn  to  late  afternoon,  resembling 
somewhat  the  heat-suggestive  tones  of  the  grasshopper."  In 
his  examination  of  the  food  of  their  nesting  he  found  that  it 
chiefly  consisted  of  short  and  long-horned  grasshoppers  and 
crickets.  The  adult  birds  live  largely  upon  grasshoppers  and 
other  meadow  insects.  They  have  been  found  to  be  very  de- 
structive of  canker-worms.  About  one-half  of  their  food  con- 
sists of  weed  and  grass  seeds. 

I  have  but  one  grandchild,  a  boy  now  ten  years  old.  Of 
course  he  is  and  always  has  been  his  grandfather's  pet.  He 
has  always  called  me  Gaga.  From  his  infancy  he  has  been 
taught  to  love  the  birds,  and  he  knows  many  of  them.  From 
Somerleaze  to  the  station  is  about  two  miles.  Alongside  the 
road  is  a  telephone  line.  About  half  way  the  distance,  for 


174  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

many  years,  a  dickcissel  has  each  year  from  a  perch  on  the 
telephone  wire,  persistently  sung  his  "See,  See — Dick,  Dick, 
Cissel,  Cissel."  The  grandchild  rides  to  and  from  the  station 
with  us.  When  yet  a  little  "tad"  the  boy  discovered  that 
dickcissel,  and  year  after  year  since  then  he  is  alert  to  redis- 
cover it,  and  when  he  does,  in  a  most  excited  way  he  cries : 
"Gaga,  Gaga,  see,  Dick  Cissel,  Dick  Cissel !" — and  don't  you 
know  that  this  makes  his  grandfather  glad!  Why?  The  an- 
swer is  that  I  believe  that  a  boy  who  learns  to  love  the  birds 
will  never  grow  to  be  a  bad  or  vicious  man. 


85 


RUBY-THROATED  HUMMINGBIRD. 

(Trochilus  colubris). 

About  Life-size. 


COPYRIGHT   1900,   BY  A.  W.   MUMFOHD,  CHICAGO 


CHAPTER  XXXI. 


July  23— July  29. 

THE  RUBY-THROATED  HUMMINGBIRD. 

Order — Macrochires  Suborder — Trochili 

Family — Trochilidse.  Genus — Trochilus 

Species — Trochilus  colubris 
Length — 3.07  to  3.25;  wing,  1.60;  tail,  1.25. 
Migration — North,  May;  south,  September. 

"Minutest  of  the  feathered  kind, 
Possessing  every   charm   combined, 
Nature,  in  forming  thee,  designed 

That  thou  shouldst  be, 
A  proof  within  how  little  space 
She  can  comprise  such  perfect  grace 
Rendering  the  lovely,  fairy  race 

Beauty's  epitome." 

The  ruby-throated  hummingbird,  the  smallest  of  our 
birds,  is  a  member  of  the  family  Trochilidae,  composed  of  the 
hummingbirds  of  which  there  are  about  five  hundred  species ; 
and  all  of  these  are  found  in  the  Americas.  Seventeen  species 
of  them  are  found  in  the  United  States,  but  the  ruby-throat  is 
the  only  one  found  in  eastern  North  America. 

The  male  and  female  are  alike  in  size  and  form,  but  quite 
unlike  in  other  respects.  The  male  above  is  of  a  bright  me- 
tallic green  color,  with  purple  wings  and  tail ;  below  white  and 
gray  with  a  resplendent  ruby-red  throat  or  gorget,  which,  with 
the  change  of  light,  rapidly  assumes  all  the  colors  of  the  rain- 

175 


176  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

bow ;  tail  brownish  violet  and  deeply  forked  like  that  of  a  tree 
swallow.  The  female  has  not  the  resplendent  gorget,  and  her 
tail  is  rounded,  with  the  feathers  barred  with  black  and  the 
outer  ones  tipped  with  white.  The  bill  of  both  the  male  and 
female  are  of  a  brownish  color,  very  long  and  needle-like  in 
shape.  The  legs,  like  those  of  the  chimney  swift  are  very 
short  and  the  feet  very  small. 

The  range  of  the  ruby-throat  extends  from  as  far  south  as 
Veragua  in  Central  America,  north  as  far  as  Davis  Inlet,  Lab- 
rador, in  latitude  55  degrees  37  minutes,  and  west  in  the  United 
States  to  eastern  North  and  South  Dakota,  eastern  Nebraska 
and  Kansas,  the  Indian  Territory  and  Texas.  Its  breeding 
range  is  coextensive  with  its  North  American  geographical  dis- 
tribution. In  its  northern  migration  it  reaches  the  southern 
part  of  the  United  States  about  the  first  of  April,  and  the  mid- 
dle part  about  the  first  part  of  May.  I  found  them  at  Buz- 
zard's Roost  May  7,  1904,  feeding  upon  the  blossoms  of  the 
buckeye.  There  is  five  to  ten  days  difference  in  the  time  of 
the  coming  of  the  males  and  females.  In  1906  several  of  them 
were  reported  in  Indianapolis  as  late  as  the  tenth  of  October. 

Mating  takes  place  directly  after  the  birds  come  north.  It 
is  during  this  period  that  what  is  known  as  the  pendulum 
play  of  the  male  takes  place.  In  this  play  the  bird  swings  to 
and  fro,  as  if  suspended  from  a  fixed  point;  it  describes  one- 
fourth  of  a  circle,  and  travels  about  a  rod.  The  movement  is 
continued  about  a  dozen  times,  the  bird  emitting  chirps  all  the 
time,  and  so  far  as  I  have  learned  this  is  its  only  call  note  or 
song.  Nesting  begins  about  the  first  of  June.  The  female 
builds  the  nest.  It  is  usually  saddled  upon  the  horizontal 
branch  of  a  tree  from  ten  to  fifty  feet  from  the  ground.  Mr. 
John  Burroughs  says :  "The  woods  hold  not  such  another  gem 
as  the  nest  of  the  hummingbird.  The  finding  of  one  is  an  event 
to  date  from.  It  is  the  next  best  thing  to  finding  an  eagle's 
nest.  I  have  met  with  but  two,  both  by  chance."  And  by  the 
merest  chance  I  found  one  of  these  "gems."  It  happened  this 
way.  I  was  leisurely  walking  down  street  to  my  office.  As  I 
walked  I  was  studying  the  trees  as  I  passed  by  them.  I  had 
just  passed  a  sassafras,  that  tree  which  when  young  is  so  sur- 
passingly beautiful.  The  next  was  a  maple.  On  a  limb,  pro- 


Nest  and  birds  together  were  not  so  large  as  the  rose 


Kellogg 


The  Ruby-Throated  Hummingbird  177 

jecting  over  the  sidewalk,  I  noticed  what  seemed  to  be  a  pe- 
culiar excrescence.  I  stopped  and  gave  it  a  second  look,  and 
sure  enough,  there  was  the  hummingbird's  nest  that  I  had  long 
been  looking  for.  I  now  have  a  specimen  in  my  collection 
which  I  obtained  in  the  summer  of  1906.  Some  children  acci- 
dentally discovered  it  while  playing  in  the  sand  under  a  beech 
tree  at  Somerleaze.  They  heard  a  buzzing  noise  above  them 
and  looking  up  saw  the  female  alighting  upon  her  nest,  which 
was  saddled  upon  an  outstretched  limb  of  the  tree  in  much  the 
same  manner  as  that  in  the  first  illustration.  Like  that,  it 
was  larger  than  the  limb  upon  which  it  was  saddled.  The 
cup  of  it  was  just  large  enough  for  me  to  put  the  end  of  my 
thumb  into  it.  The  diminutive  size  of  one  of  these  nests  is 
beautifully  shown  in  the  second  illustration  made  from  a  pho- 
tograph taken  by  Dr.  Kellogg,  which  shows  that  the  nest  and 
the  birds  together  are  smaller  than  the  rose  above  them. 

Major  Bendire's  description  of  the  building  of  the  nest  is 
so  good  that  I  give  it  in  full.  He  says,  "It  is  one  of  the  most 
exquisite  pieces  of  bird  architecture  to  be  found  anywhere.  The 
circular  foundation  is  composed  of  bits  of  lichens,  mixed  with 
fine  vegetable  fibers,  which  are  apparently  firmly  glued  to  the 
twig  on  which  the  nest  is  saddled,  presumably  with  the  saliva 
secreted  by  the  bird  for  this  purpose,  and  the  structure  is  built 
upon  this,  the  inner  portions  of  it  being  composed  of  soft, 
downy  plant  fibers,  such  as  the  silky  down  of  different  species 
of  willows  and  poplars,  that  are  found  on  the  young  and  un- 
expanded  leaves  of  the  oaks  and  various  kinds  of  ferns,  espec- 
ially that  from  the  young  stalks  of  the  common  brake,  the  silky 
down  of  the  milkweed,  and  similar  materials  from  other 
sources.  After  these  have  been  well  worked  together  in  a  sort 
of  vegetable  felt,  the  outer  walls  of  the  nest  are  profusely  cov- 
ered with  a  coating  of  bits  of  lichens  obtained  from  the  trunks 
of  limbs  of  trees  in  the  vicinity,  and  these  are  firmly  fastened 
in  place  with  spider  webs,  giving  the  nest  the  appearance  of  a 
small,  lichen  covered  knot,  which  for  this  reason  is  very  diffi- 
cult to  detect.  In  nearly  every  instance  the  nest  is  placed  so 
that  its  contents  are  protected  from  above  by  the  leaves  of  the 
trees  or  a  limb  directly  over  it,  and  it  is  rare  to  find  one  in  a 
perfectly  open  and  unsheltered  situation.  The  location  of  the 


178  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

beautiful  structure  certainly  shows  considerable  intelligence 
on  the  part  of  the  builder.  Two  white  eggs  are  laid  to  a  set, 
one  every  other  day,  and  these  are  frequently  deposited  before 
the  nest  is  more  than  half  completed,  the  female  finishing  it 
gradually  after  incubation  has  commenced,  and  sometimes 
adding  additional  lichens  on  the  outside,  even  after  the  young 
have  been  hatched." 

As  soon  as  incubation  commences  the  male  appears  to  lose 
all  interest  in  his  spouse  for  the  time  being  and  leads  an  easy, 
careless  life,  and  lets  her  attend  to  the  incubation  and  feeding 
of  the  young.  Incubation  lasts  about  fourteen  days.  When 
hatched  the  young  are  blind  and  they  do  not  open  their  eyes 
until  they  are  about  a  week  old.  They  are  large  enough  to 
leave  the  nest  in  from  sixteen  to  twenty-one  days.  The  mother 
feeds  them  by  regurgitation  and  their  food  consists  of  the  nec- 
tar of  various  flowers  and  very  tiny  insects. 

The  food  habits  of  the  ruby-throat  are  interesting.  Its 
food  consists  of  minute  insects  and  nectar,  which  it  extracts 
from  the  deep  chalices  of  flowers  and  sap  which  it  obtains, 
from  trees  where  the  sapsucker  has  perforated  them.  Pro- 
fessor Judd  of  the  United  States  Department  of  Agriculture 
says,  that  the  adult  birds  feed  on  insects  to  a  much  greater  ex- 
tent than  they  do  on  nectar,  and  that  they  destroy  many  gnats, 
ants,  and  minute  parasitic  wasps ;  and  that  the  young  nestlings 
are  fed  on  flies,  beetles  and  spiders  by  the  process  of  regurgi- 
tation, a  habit  that  appears  to  be  much  more  general  among 
birds  than  formerly  supposed.  To  enable  the  hummingbird  to 
obtain  its  food,  it  is  provided  with  an  unusually  long  beak  and 
a  wonderfully  constructed  tongue.  The  tongue  is  long,  thread- 
like, and  divided  into  two  tubes  which  run  throughout  its  en- 
tire length,  and  is  capable  of  being  protruded  to  a  consider- 
able distance  from  the  point  of  the  tip  of  the  beak,  and  can  be 
bent  in  any  direction.  At  the  throat  it  joins  a  curiously  forked 
bone  which  passes  on'  either  side  of  the  neck,  and  around  the 
back  of  the  head,  ending  in  the  forehead,  like  that  of  the  flicker 
and  is  illustrated  in  the  chapter  entitled  "The  Flicker,"  which 
see  in  this  connection.  It  is  this  and  the  muscles  that  control 
it  which  enables  the  bird  to  protrude  its  tongue.  With  its 
tongue  which  acts  like  a  suction  pump,  it  has  the  power  of 


The  Ruby-Throated  Hummingbird  179 

drawing  nectar  from  the  deep  cupped  flowers.  There  was  a 
time  when  it  was  claimed  that  the  hummingbird's  food  con- 
sisted only  of  this  nectar.  But  the  naturalist  Webber,  estab- 
lished the  fact  that  this  was  not  true.  He  caught  and  tamed 
several  of  these  little  birds.  At  first  they  were  fond  of  syrup, 
but  after  a  while  they  got  tired  of  it  and  began  to  droop.  He 
let  them  fly  away.  They  soon  returned,  as  fresh  as  ever.  This 
occurred  again,  and  when  next  set  free  Mr.  Webber  and  his 
sister  watched  them  carefully.  He  says :  "We  were  sadly  puz- 
zled to  think  what  it  was  they  were  dipping  at  so  eagerly  in 
the  shrubbery,  to  the  utter  neglect  of  many  flowers.  We  moved 
closer  to  watch  them  to  better  advantage,  and  in  so  doing 
changed  our  relative  position  to  the  sun.  At  once  the  thing 
was  revealed  to  me.  I  caught  Ruby  in  the  very  act  of  taking 
a  small  spider,  with  the  point  of  his  beak,  from  the  center 
one  of  those  circular  webs  of  the  garden  spider,  that  so  abound 
in  the  south.  *  *  *  Our  presence  did  not  disturb  them  in 
the  least,  and  we  watched  them  catching  spiders  for  half  an 
hour,  *  *  *  and  we  could  distinctly  see  them  take  the 
little  spider  from  the  center  of  the  wheel  where  it  lies,  and 
swallow  it  entire.  *  *  *  If  we  shut  them  up  past  the  time, 
until  they  began  to  look  drooping,  and  then  brought  one  of 
those  little  spiders  with  other  insects,  they  would  snap  up  the 
spider  soon  enough,  but  paid  no  attention  to  the  others." 

At  Somerleaze  we  have  trailing  over  the  veranda  many 
vines  of  the  honeysuckle.  In  the  shade  of  these  has  been  a 
favorite  place  of  mine  for  the  observation  of  many  birds,  and 
among  them  the  ruby-throats,  who  come  in  large  numbers  to 
feed  from  the  chalices  of  the  honeysuckle  flowers.  To  the  west 
of  our  front  lawn  is  a  large  bed  of  perennial  flowers,  and  a  good 
portion  of  it  is  given  to  the  various  columbines.  On  a  great 
oak  stump  on  the  east  lawn  is  a  trumpet  vine.  The  flowers  of 
the  columbine  and  the  trumpet  vine  are  favorites  with  the 
ruby-throat.  Often  have  I  gone  and  stood  very  quietly  by 
these  and  watched  it  as  it  worked. 


180  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

"Blooms  at  thy  coming  stirred, 

Bend  on  each  brittle  stem, 

Nod  to  the  little  gem, 
Bow  to  the  hummingbird  frolic  and  free. 

Now  around  the  woodbine  hovering, 

Now  the  morning-glory  covering, 

Now  the  honeysuckle  sipping, 

Now  the  sweet  clematis  tipping, 

Now  the  bluebell   dipping; 
Hither,  thither,  flashing,  bright'ning, 
Like  a  streak  of  emerald  lightning; 

Round  the  box,  with  milk-white  phlox; 

Round  the  fragrant  four  o'clocks; 

O'er  the  crimson  quamoclit, 

Lightly  dost  thou  wheel  and  flit; 
Into  each  tubed  throat 
Dives  little  Ruby-throat." 

Among  my  clippings  I  find  an  account  of  a  locomotive  en- 
gineer who  had  made  observations  on  the  speed  of  various 
birds  and  insects.  Many  birds,  he  says,  make  a  practice  of 
flying  beside  or  in  front  of  his  engine,  and  when  the  weather  is 
clear  and  there  is  no  wind  he  opens  the  throttle  and  races 
with  them.  He  estimates  that  the  turkey  buzzard  flies  at  the 
rate  of  twenty-three  miles  an  hour.  The  pigeon  is  one  of  the 
fastest  birds  in  the  United  States.  It  makes  a  speed  of  forty- 
six  miles  an  hour  with  ease.  When  chased  by  an  engine  it  can 
beat  the  fastest  express.  The  wild  duck  travels  at  the  rate  of 
forty  miles.  The  blackbird,  robin,  dove  and  other  small  birds 
travel  at  a  speed  of  thirty-eight  miles  an  hour.  The  humming- 
bird can  and  does  excel  a  speed  of  a  mile  a  minute. 

And  now  we  have  followed  the  ruby-throat  through  his 
sojourn  with  us,  while  as, 

"A  flash  of  harmless  lightning, 

A  mist   of   rainbow   dyes, 
The  burnished  sunbeams  brightning, 

From  flower  to  flower  he  flies." 

Summer  has  gone  and  autumn  is  here,  and  he  is  off  to  the 
sunny  south.  In  the  words  of  Howitt : 

"Thou  happy,  happy  hummingbird, 

No  winter  round  thee  lowers; 
Thou  never  saw  a  leafless  tree, 

Nor  land  without  sweet  flowers." 

"A  reign  of  summer  joyfulness 

To  thee  for  life  is  given; 
Thy  food  the  honey  of  the  flower, 
Thy  drink  the  dew  of  heaven." 


CHAPTER  XXXII. 


July  30 — August  5. 

THE  NIGHT  HAWK. 

Order — Macrochires  Suborder — Caprimulgi 

Family — Caprimulgidse  Genus — Chordeiles 

Species — Chordeiles  virginianus 
Length — 10.00;  wing,  7.30  to  8.25  ;  tail,  4.30  to  4.75. 
Migration — North,  May;  south,  September. 

"In  the  high,  pale  heaven  he  flies  and  calls; 
Then  swift,  oh  swift, 
On  sounding  wing 
That  hums  like  a  string, 

To  the  quiet  glades  where  the  gnat  clouds  drift, 
And  the  night  moths  flicker,  he  falls. 
Then  hark,  the  Nighthawk!" 

The  family  Caprimulgidse,  known  as  the  goatsucker  fam- 
ily, is  composed  of  the  nighthawks,  whip-poor-wills  and  chuck- 
will's-widows.  There  are  about  eighty-five  species  of  the  fam- 
ily distributed  throughout  the  world.  About  one-half  of  these 
are  American  birds,  but  only  seven  of  them  are  found  in  North 
America,  and  but  three  of  them,  namely,  the  chuck-will's  wid- 
ow antrostomus  carolinensis,  the  whip-poor-will,  anstrostomus 
vociferus,  and  the  nighthawk,  chordeiles  virginianus,  are 
found  in  the  Middle  West.  All  of  the  species  capture  their 
food  of  insects  on  the  wing.  As  a  family,  the  goatsuckers  are 
perhaps  more  crepuscular  than  any  other  birds  except  the  owls. 
While  this  is  true,  it  cannot  be  said  that  the  nighthawk,  as  its 

181 


1 82  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

name  would  indicate,  is  a  bird  of  the  night.  It  is  neither  a  hawk 
nor  a  bird  of  the  night,  but  rather  a  bird  of  the  late  afternoon 
and  dusk  and  the  early  dawn  of  morning,  and  of  cloudy  days. 
Its  cousins,  the  chuck-will's-widow  and  the  whip-poor-will  are 
strictly  nocturnal  birds.  At  Buzzard's  Roost  as  soon  as  the 
sun  has  disappeared  behind  the  western  hills,  we  hear  the 
whip-poor-will, 

"With  his  music  throb  and  thrill 
He  it  is  that  makes  the  night 

An  enchantment  and  delight, 

Opening  his  entrancing  tale, 

Where  the  evening  robins  fail, 

Ending  the  victorious  strain 

When  the  robins  sing  again." 

The  nighthawk  is  known  by  the  other  names  of  bull  bat, 
and  mosquito  hawk.  Apparently  it  is  more  than  a  medium 
sized  bird,  but  in  fact  its  body  is  very  small.  The  night  hawk 
and  whip-poor-will  look  much  alike  and  many  people  think 
they  are  the  same.  The  first,  however,  has  a  white  throat  in- 
stead of  a  narrow  white  line  on  a  black  throat  and  in  the  day 
shows  the  white  bands  or  stars  in  its  crescent  wings.  The  lat- 
ter fact  inspired  my  friend,  Mrs.  Jane  L.  Hine,  who  is  a  close 
student  and  lover  of  the  birds,  under  the  title  "The  Stars  in 
the  Night  Hawk's  Wings,"  to  write  the  following  poem : 

"The  night  is  approaching, 

The  sun  is  near  setting 
And  night  hawks,  that  hunger  has  called  from  their  roost, 

Above  us  are  soaring 

And  hungrily  gleaning, 
From  pastures  that  lie  on  the  sky's  azure  breast." 

"Now,  straight  upward  looking 

On  birds  that  are  passing, 
We  see  a  unique  and  most  beautiful  thing; 

Each  night  hawk  in  sailing 

Reveals  that  it's  wearing 
A  pair  of  bright  stars,  one  in  each  dusky  wing." 

The  adult  male  nighthawk  has  a  large  flat  head  with  a 
very  small  curved  bill  which  is  hooked  at  the  tip  and  of  a  black 
color ;  mouth  extremely  large  and  without  bristles ;  eye  large 
and  full  and  of  a  deep  bluish  black ;  neck  short  and  body  slen- 


The  Night  Hawk  183 

der;  upper  part  of  body  greenish  black  and  slightly  mottled 
with  streaks  of  pale  cream  color  interspersed  with  specks  of 
reddish ;  wing  coverts  varied  with  grayish,  and  the  scapulars 
with  yellowish  rufous ;  primaries  brown,  the  five  outer  ones 
marked  about  midway  with  a  white  spot ;  tail,  long,  broad, 
forked  and  barred  with  white  and  deep  brownish  black  for  an 
inch  and  a  half  from  the  tip,  where  it  is  crossed  broadly  with  a 
band  of  white,  the  middle  feathers  excepted,  they  being  of  a 
deep  brown  color,  barred  and  sprinkled  with  light  clay;  a  white 
V  shaped  mark  on  the  breast;  other  under  parts  with  trans- 
verse bars  of  white,  blackish  and  pale  tawny;  plumage  soft 
and  blended ;  legs,  short,  feathered  a  little  below  the  knees, 
and,  as  well  as  the  toes,  of  a  purplish  color,  seamed  with  white ; 
the  middle  claw  is  pectinated  on  its  inner  edge,  to,  as  Wilson 
says,  serve  as  a  comb  to  clear  the  bodies  of  vermin.  In  flight 
the  white  markings  of  the  bird  are  very  conspicuous.  In  ap- 
pearance the  female  is  like  the  male,  except  that  she  has  not 
the  white  patch  on  the  tail,  and  that  of  the  throat  is  mixed  with 
reddish. 

The  nighthawk  is  a  migrant,  that  comes  north  in  May  and 
returns  south  in  September  and  October.  Its  range  extends 
through  Eastern  North  America,  north  in  the  Dominion  of 
Canada  to  59  degrees  north  latitude ;  thence  in  a  northwesterly 
direction  to  Mackenzie  River  Valley  to  65  degrees  north  lati- 
tude ;  west  in  the  United  States  to  the  eastern  border  of  the 
Great  Plains  and  sporadically  along  the  southern  boundary  of 
the  Dominion  of  Canada  and  the  northern  districts  to  southern 
British  Columbia,  Washington,  Oregon  and  northern  Califor- 
nia; and  thence  south  in  winter  to  the  Bahama  Islands,  Cen- 
tral America,  and  the  greater  part  of  South  America.  Mr. 
Cooke  in  his  bulletin  says :  "Of  the  land  birds,  the  common 
eastern  nighthawk  seems  to  deserve  first  place  among  those 
whose  winter  homes  are  widely  distant  from  their  breeding 
grounds.  Alaska  and  Patagonia,  separated  by  115  degrees  of 
latitude,  are  the  extremes  of  the  summer  and  winter  homes  of 
the  bird ;  and  each  spring  many  a  nighthawk  travels  the  5,000 
miles  that  lie  between." 

It  breeds  throughout  its  northern  range.  In  the  more 
southern  part  of  it,  usually  it  nests  in  the  first  half  of  May  but 


184  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

in  the  northern  part  not  until  in  June.  It  makes  no  nest,  but, 
as  is  shown  in  the  illustration,  deposits  its  two  eggs  on  the 
bare  ground,  and  within  recent  years  they  also  nest  more  and 
more  frequently  on  the  flat,  gravel-covered  rooms  of  houses  in 
our  large  cities.  Those  that  build  on  the  ground  always  pick 
out  a  dry  and  well  drained  spot  in  which  to  lay  their  eggs,  and 
if  discovered  on  the  nest,  the  bird  attempts  by  all  the  well- 
known  tactics  of  ground-breeding  birds  to  draw  the  intruder 
away  from  the  spot,  fluttering  in  front  of  him,  just  out  of  reach, 
and  uttering  at  times  low  cries  of  distress.  Occasionally  the 
eggs  or  young  are  removed  quite  a  little  distance  by  the  parent. 
The  eggs,  only  two  of  which  are  laid,  are  white,  cream,  olive- 
buff  or  olive  gray,  marked  with  black,  gray  and  lavendar.  The 
eggs  are  laid  on  alternate  days.  Incubation  begins  when  the 
first  one  is  laid,  and  both  parents  take  part  in  it.  It  lasts  about 
sixteen  days.  The  young,  covered  when  hatched  with  dark- 
spotted  down,  are  not  easily  found,  nor  are  they  easily  discov- 
ered on  becoming  full  fledged,  for  their  plumage  almost  re- 
sembles that  of  the  adults,  being  a  blended  mixture  of  greenish- 
brown,  gray,  and  black.  They  soon  attain  their  full  size  and 
power  of  flight,  and  then  take  to  the  same  manner  of  life  as 
their  parents. 

The  flight  of  the  nighthawk  is  both  wonderful  and  beauti- 
ful. In  many  respects  these  birds  resemble  the  swallows  and 
swifts.  This  is  especially  true  of  the  shape  of  their  heads,  bod- 
ies, wings  and  feet,  the  only  apparent  difference  being  that  of 
size.  All  of  them  are  fully  equipped  to  do  their  specific  work — 
that  of  taking  their  food  out  of  the  upper  air  while  in  flight — 
and  for  this  work  they  are  wonderfully  equipped. 

In  describing  the  flight  of  the  nighthawk,  Major  Bendire 
aptly  says :  "One  moment  it  may  be  seen  soaring  through  space 
without  any  movement  of  its  pinions,  and  again  the  swift  flight 
is  accompanied  by  a  good  deal  of  rapid  flapping  of  the  wings, 
like  that  of  our  falcons,  and  then  is  constantly  more  or  less 
varied  by  numerous  twistings  and  turnings.  While  suddenly 
darting  here  and  there  in  pursuit  of  its  prey  I  have  seen  one  of 
these  birds  shoot  almost  perpendicularly  upward  with  the 
swiftness  of  an  arrow  in  pursuit  of  some  insect.  Its  tail  ap- 
pears to  assist  it  greatly  in  these  movements."  Usually  they 


The  Night  Hawk  185 

are  seen  in  pairs  at  such  times,  but  occasionally  there  are  num- 
bers of  them  assembled  together.  It  is  then  a  most  interesting 
sight  to  watch  them,  while  engaged  in  feeding,  skimming  close 
to  the  ground  or  over  the  waters  of  some  pond  or  lake,  gliding 
swiftly  along  in  all  kinds  of  serpentine  gyrations  with  the  ut- 
most grace  and  ease  and  no  matter  how  limited  or  numerous 
the  number  of  them  may  be,  no  one  of  them  will  ever  get  in  the 
way  of  the  other.  To  me  that  part  of  the  flight  of  the  night- 
hawk  is  most  interesting  which  takes  place  just  in  advance  of 
an  approaching  storm.  From  my  office  window  I  have  often 
watched  them  with  amazement.  Then  as  Major  Bendire  says 
it  soars  and  it  flaps,  it  twists  and  it  turns,  it  mounts  perpendic- 
ularly into  the  air  until  it  seems  to  be  up  in  the  clouds — when 
in  an  instant  it  shoots  down  with  lightning  rapidity  almost  to 
the  earth,  and  then,  by  a  single  reverse  movement  of  the  wings, 
turns  abruptly  and  ascends  to  resume  its  flight  or  repeat  the 
same  performance.  As  the  bird  thus  drops  suddenly  through 
the  air  it  makes  a  whirring  sound  that  Nuttal  likens  to  the 
"rapid  turning  of  a  spinning  wheel,  or  a  strong  blowing  into 
the  bung-hole  of  an  empty  hogshead."  Others  describe  it  as  a 
"booming."  There  has  been  much  conjecturing  as  to  how  this 
noise  is  made.  It  is  now  pretty  generally  conceded  that  it  is 
made  by  the  air  pas*ong  through  the  bird's  stiffened  wing- 
quills.  It  has  but  one  note,  and  that  is  like  the  "scaip"  of  the 
woodcock. 

When  not  in  flight  the  nighthawk  sits  very  still  and  it  is 
difficult  to  find  owing  to  its  protective  coloration  and  the  posi- 
tion which  it  assumes.  While  it  can  perch  like  other  birds,  it 
does  not  do  so.  On  the  contrary,  if  it  is  in  a  tree  or  on  a  log  it 
sits  lengthwise  with  the  limb  or  log,  on  which  it  is  and  pre- 
sents much  the  appearance  of  a  knot  or  broken  limb.  Those 
in  the  city  rest  on  the  roofs  of  the  buildings  and  in  doing  so 
sit  very  flat  and  close  to  the  roof  and  are  almost  imperceptible. 
From  the  lunch  room,  which  is  on  the  eighth  story  of  the 
building  in  which  we  have  our  offices,  I  have  frequently  while 
taking  my  lunch  seen  one  thus  sitting  on  the  roof  of  another 
building. 

As  to  its  anatomy  and  food  Prof.  F.  E.  L.  Beal  says :  "The 
body  of  the  nighthawk  is  much  smaller  than  one  would  sup- 


1 86  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

pose  from  seeing  the  bird  on  the  wing.  The  long  wings  and 
the  loose,  fluffy  feathers,  tend  to  give  an  exaggerated  appear- 
ance of  size  that  is  not  real.  The  body  is  actually  so  small,  and 
with  so  little  flesh  on  the  loose  skeleton,  that  it  is  about  the 
last  bird  one  would  suppose  any  one  would  kill  for  food.  The 
pectoral  muscles  which  move  the  long  wings  constitute  the 
principal  and  only  part  where  there  is  much  flesh.  The  legs 
are  small  and  weak  and  do  not  appear  to  have  much  use,  so 
that  the  muscles  which  move  them  are  reduced  to  a  minimum. 
In  one  point,  however,  the  nighthawk's  anatomy  is  fully  de- 
veloped ;  its  stomach  is  huge  for  so  small  a  bird.  In  capacity 
it  fully  equals,  if  it  does  not  exceed,  that  of  the  common  pig- 
eon, whose  body  is  at  least  twice  as  large.  It  is  right  here  that 
the  nighthawk's  usefulness  appears.  This  enormous  stomach 
must  be  kept  filled  to  supply  motive  power  for  the  long  wings 
which  are  kept  in  motion  so  many  hours.  To  facilitate  this 
work  Nature  has  given  the  bird  an  immense  mouth,  which  is 
really  more  like  the  mouth  of  a  turtle  or  a  frog  than  of  a  bird. 
The  food  consists  of  insects  taken  on  the  wing,  and  so  greedy 
is  the  bird  that  when  food  is  plenty  it  fills  its  great  stomach 
almost  to  bursting.  To  ascertain  the  character  of  the  food 
taken,  nearly  one  hundred  stomachs  were  examined,  with  inter- 
esting results.  Eighty-seven  of  these  were  estimated  to  con- 
tain not  less  than  20,000  ants  alone,  and  this  was  not  half  of  the 
insect  food." 

In  September  the  nighthawks  commence  going  south.  At 
this  time  they  gather  into  large  flocks  and  seem  to  be  in  train- 
ing for  their  journey.  Up  and  down  Fall  Creek  at  Buzzard's 
Roost,  I  have  seen  hundreds  of  them  thus  getting  ready,  and 
it  was  a  beautiful  sight. 


CHAPTER  XXXIII. 


August  6 — August  12. 

THE  YELLOW-BILLED  CUCKOO. 

Order — Coccyges  Suborder — Cuculi 

Family — Cuculidae  Subfamily — Coccyginae 

Genus — Coccyzus  Species — Coccyzus  americanus 

Length — 11.90  to  12.70;  wing,  5.40  to  5.80;  tail,  6.00  to  6.15. 
Migration — North,  May;  south,  October. 

"Delightful  visitant!     with  thee 

I  hail  the  time  of  flowers, 
And  hear  the  sound  of  music  sweet 

From  birds  among  the  bowers. 

"Sweet  bird!  thy  bower  is  ever  green, 

Thy  sky  is  ever  clear; 
Thou  hast  no  sorrow  in  thy  song, 

No  winter  in  thy  year." 

The  family  Cuculidse,  composed  of  the  cuckoos  has  in  it 
about  one  hundred  and  seventy-five  species.  Of  these  about 
thirty-five  are  found  in  the  Americas.  In  the  Middle  West  we 
have  but  two,  the  yellow-billed  and  black-billed  cuckoos.  These 
resemble  each  other  very  much.  They  may  be  distinguished 
by  the  color  of  their  bills  and  tails.  The  lower  mandible  of  the 
first  is  yellow  and  of  the  other  black ;  the  tail  feathers  of  the 
first  is  conspicuously  tipped  with  white,  which  extends  down 
the  outer  vane  of  the  outer  feather ;  of  the  other  the  tail  feath- 
ers are  narrowly  tipped  with  white.  They  are  rather  solitary 

187 


1 88  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

birds  inhabiting  wooded  areas.  They  are  possessed  of  peculiar 
vocal  powers,  and  their  strange  calls  are  frequently  the  origin 
of  their  popular  'names.  For  instance,  in  some  parts  the  yel- 
low-billed cuckoo  is  called  the  cow-bird  from  its  call  "kowe, 
kowe,  kowe,"  and  the  rain  crow  because  often  its  call  is  most 
frequently  made  just  before  the  approach  of  a  rain  storm. 

The  bill  is  that  which  gives  the  yellow-billed  cuckoo  its 
distinguishing  name.  It  is  long,  arched,  and  curved  downward 
at  the  tip  like  a  shoemaker's  awl.  The  upper  mandible  is  black 
and  the  lower  yellow  except  at  the  tip,  which  is  also  black. 
Iris  of  the  eye  hazel,  feathered  close  to  the  eyelid,  which  is  yel- 
low below.  The  general  color  of  the  upper  parts,  with  the 
wing  coverts  and  two  middle  tail  feathers  is  a  light  greenish 
brown.  The  wings  are  not  so  long  as  the  tail,  are  of  a  brown- 
ish color,  with  the  inner  vanes  of  a  bright  reddish  cinnamon. 
The  tail  is  quite  long,  held  in  a  somewhat  oblique  position,  and 
excepting  the  two  middle  feathers,  is  black,  with  a  broad  white 
space  at  the  end  of  the  three  outermost  feathers,  and  the 
fourth  white  on  the  outer  web.  The  whole  lower  parts  of  • 
the  body  are  pure  white.  The  feathers  covering  the  thighs  are 
large  like  those  of  the  hawk  tribe.  The  legs  and  feet  are  light 
blue.  The  feet  of  the  cuckoos  have  been  the  source  of  much 
study  and  conjecture  among  the  ornithologists,  in  this,  that 
they  have  four  toes  in  two  pairs,  one  pair  being  in  front  and 
the  other  in  the  rear.  This  is  the  manner  of  the  construction 
of  the  feet  of  the  woodpecker  family,  and  with  them  the  reason 
for  such  construction  is  easily  accounted  for,  since  it  enables 
them  to  hold  fast  to  the  boles  of  the  trees.  This  reason  can  not 
be  applied  to  the  cuckoo,  since  it  does  not  ascend  or  descend 
the  boles  of  trees.  The  general  appearance  of  this  cuckoo  is 
very  much  like  that  of  the  mourning  dove.  In  appearance  the 
sexes  are  alike  except  that  the  female  is  the  largest. 

The  yellow-billed  cuckoo  is  a  migrant.  In  the  chapter  on 
the  bobolink  we  have  seen  that  it  is  one  of  the  birds  which 
takes  the  "Bobolink  route"  in  its  migrations.  Its  range  ex- 
tends from  Costa  Rica  north  to  about  latitude  45  degrees  30 
minutes.  In  the  United  States,  through  southern  Maine,  Mich- 
igan, Wisconsin,  southern  Minnesota,  and  South  Dakota ;  west 
to  Nebraska,  Kansas,  the  Indian  Territory,  and  Texas ;  south 


Young  cuckoos 


Kellogg 


The  Yellow-Billed  Cuckoo  189 

to  Florida,  the  Gulf  coast,  and  the  West  India  Islands.  It  ar- 
rives in  the  Northern  States  about  the  commencement  of  May, 
and  remains  there  until  the  end  of  September  or  the  first  of 
October.  Its  breeding  range  is  coextensive  with  its  geographi- 
cal distribution  throughout  the  United  States  and  the  south- 
ern portions  of  the  Dominion  of  Canada.  Nidification  begins 
shortly  after  their  arrival  in  the  north,  ranging  from  the  middle 
of  May  to  the  middle  of  June.  As  will  be  seen  by  the  illustra- 
tions, the  nest  is  a  shabby  affair — much  like  that  of  the  Mourn- 
ing Dove.  It  is  a  mere  platform  of  twigs,  and  built  in  a  bush 
or  tree  from  five  to  twenty  feet  from  the  ground.  Two  ob- 
served at  Somerleaze  were  so  flimsy  in  construction  that  it 
seemed  impossible  for  them  to  hold  eggs,  and  standing  under 
them  I  could  see  through  them.  Occasionally,  nests  are  found 
that  are  fairly  large  and  well  lined  with  dry  grass,  ferns  and 
leaves ;  but  as  a  rule,  they  are  shallow  and  rough  in  appear- 
ance. The  eggs  are  greenish  blue,  and  a  complement  of  them 
consists  of  two  to  five,  and  rarely  six  or  seven.  Incubation 
commences  as  soon  as  the  first  egg  is  laid,  and  accordingly  we 
have  the  strange  anomaly  of  eggs  and  birdlings  occupying  the 
same  nest.  In  rare  instances  it  has  been  found  that  the  cuckoc 
deposits  its  eggs  in  the  nests  of  other  birds,  as  the  Cuckoos  of 
Europe  do.  The  three  facts,  namely,  the  skeleton-nest,  man- 
ner of  incubation,  and  occasionally  depositing  of  eggs  in  nests 
of  other  birds,  are  adduced  by  some  ornithologists  as  evidence 
of  the  fact  that  an  evolution  is  taking  place  in  our  cuckoo,  and 
that  it  is  losing  the  pernicious  habit  of  its  European  cousin  and 
taking  on  the  habit  of  providing  a  nest  for  itself  and  caring 
for  its  young. 

I  have  witnessed  the  motherly  care  and  distress  of  one  of 
these  birds.  One  Sunday  afternoon  at  Somerleaze,  about  the 
middle  of  July,  1901,  I  discovered,  by  a  call  of  the  bird  that  she 
had  built  her  nest  in  a  cedar  tree,  standing  twelve  feet  from 
the  corner  of  the  veranda.  This  surprised  me,  for  the  cuckoos 
are  regarded  as  shy  birds ;  and  I  had  not  known  that  the  fe- 
male ever  made  calls  from  the  nest.  During  the  remainder  of 
her  brooding  she  often  uttered  the  calls.  While  brooding,  the 
bird  kept  a  close  eye  upon  every  movement  of  ours — and  such 
beautiful  eyes  she  did  have !  Subsequently  I  discovered  there 


1 90  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

was  a  young  cuckoo  in  the  nest.  The  mother  bird  was  feeding 
it  a  very  large  grasshopper.  It  was  interesting  to  notice  how 
she  did  it.  She  alighted  near  the  side  of  the  nest,  and  for 
awhile  sat  very  still  and  kept  constantly  eyeing  the  young 
one.  She  seemed  to  be  crushing  the  forepart  of  the  grass- 
hopper, preparatory  to  giving  it  to  the  little  one  head  fore- 
most. In  feeding  it  her  beak  went  far  into  its  mouth  as  though 
she  was  assisting  it  to  swallow  the  grasshopper.  The  process 
was  a  slow  one.  Five  mornings  afterward,  I  noticed  the  little 
one  was  on  a  lower  limb  of  the  tree.  No  doubt  it  had  fallen 
out  of  the  shabby  nest.  The  mother  bird  saw  me  and  warned 
her  baby  much  as  a  hen  does  her  chickens  when  danger  is  near. 
It  was  amusing  to  see  the  little  one  stand  up  erect,  and  remain 
stock  still:  When  I  came  home  that  night  the  little  one  was 
gone.  Another  bird  tragedy!  No  doubt  a  cat  had  caught  it. 
The  distress  of  the  mother  bird  was  great.  I  shall  never  forget 
the  incident.  She  went  over  the  cedar,  from  its  topmost  to  its 
lowest  branches.  She  flew  from  limb  to  limb,  and  in  the  most 
pathetic  way  called  for  her  baby.  Then  she  would  sit  and  eye 
and  scan  every  branch  of  the  tree.  When  she  had  gone  over 
the  cedar,  she  flew  to  the  near-by  trees  and  examined  them. 
Near  midnight  I  heard  her  calling  for  her  lost  one ;  and  when 
I  came  home  the  next  evening  she  was  still  searching  for  it. 

The  cuckoo  is  an  insectivorous  bird,  and  one  of  the  best 
friends  of  the  farmer  and  the  orchardist.  Many  of  them  know 
it  as  the  rain  crow,  because  of  the  fact  that  its  guttural  call  is 
most  frequently  heard  in  moist,  cloudy  weather.  Many  of  our 
worst  insect  pests,  in  passing  through  the  caterpillar  state,  are 
covered  with  spines  as  completely  as  the  porcupine.  For  this 
reason  many  of  the  insectivorous  birds  will  not  feed  upon 
them.  And  just  here  is  where  the  value  of  the  cuckoo  comes 
in,  for  it  is  its  delight  to  attack  these,  eviscerate  them  and 
then  devour  them.  Prof.  Forbush  says :  "The  caterpillar  habit 
of  the  cuckoo  is  so  well  known  that  to  see  several  cuckoos  to- 
gether is  taken  as  a  sign  of  the  caterpillars'  presence,  and  their 
stomachs  sometimes  become  lined  and  fettered  with  the  hairs 
of  the  caterpillars,  of  which  they  eat  many  destructive  kinds." 

As  Major  Bendire  says,  the  cuckoo  "is  decidedly  aboreal 
in  its  habits,  and  is  rarely  seen  on  the  ground,  where  on  ac- 


The  Yellow-Billed  Cuckoo  191 

count  of  its  short  and  weak  feet,  its  movements  are  rather 
awkward ;  but  on  the  wing  it  is  exceedingly  graceful ;  its  flight 
is  noiseless  and  swift  and  it  moves  or  rather  glides  through 
the  densest  foliage  with  the  greatest  ease,  now  flying  sidewise, 
and  again  twisting  and  doubling  at  right  angles  through  the 
thickest  shrubbery  almost  as  easily  as  if  passing  through  un- 
obstructed space,  its  long  tail  assisting  it  very  materially  in 
all  its  complicated  movements."  In  many  respects  the  Euro- 
pean cuckoo  is  like  ours.  Of  it  Wordsworth,  Nature's  bard  of 
England,  wrote : 

"O  blithe  newcomer!   I  have  heard, 

I    hear   thee   and   rejoice. 
A  Cuckoo!   shall  I  call  thee  bird? 

Or  but  a  wandering  voice? 

While  I  am  lying  on  the  grass, 

Thy  loud  note  smites  my  ear! 
From  hill  to  hill  it  seems  to  pass, 

At  once  far  off  and  near! 

Thrice  welcome,  darling  of  the  Spring! 

Even  thou  art  to  me 
No  bird,  but  an  invisible  thing, 

A  voice,  a  mystery." 

Our  cuckoo  is  not  gifted  with  song.  It  simply  has  calls, 
and  these  are  described  as  "cook-cook,  cook,  cook,  "cow-cow- 
cow-cow,"  and  "ke-ock,  ke-ock,  ke-ock,  ke-ock."  But,  like  its 
foreign  relative,  it  may  be  properly  called  "A  voice,  a  mys- 
tery," for  no  bird  with  which  I  am  acquainted  is  so  mysterious 
and  strange  in  its  habits.  You  hear  its  call  and  know  it  is 
about,  but  find  it  if  you  can !  It  is  in  the  midst  of  the  foliage 
of  some  tree,  sitting  so  still  you  can  not  see  it.  Presently  it 
will  leave  the  tree  with  the  velocity  of  an  arrow  and  fly  directly 
into  the  foliage  of  another  tree.  And  so,  from  tree  to  tree  it 
will  go  hunting  for  its  relished  food,  never  alighting  on  the 
outside  or  on  top  of  the  tree. 


81 


SUMMER  YELLOW  BIRD. 
(Dendroica  aestiva.) 
i  Life-size. 


VIUMFORD,   CHICAGO 


CHAPTER  XXXIV. 


August  13 — August  19. 

THE  YELLOW  WARBLER. 

Order — Passeres  Suborder — Oscines 

Family — Mniotiltidse  Genus — Dendroica 

Species — Dendroica  sestiva. 

Length — 4.50  to  5.25 ;  wing,  2.35  to  2.65  ;  tail,  1.80  to  2.10. 
Migration — North,  April ;  south,  August. 

"While  May  bedecks  the  naked  trees 
With  tassels  and  embroideries, 
And  many  blue-hued  violets  beam 
Along  the  edges  of  the  stream, 
I  hear  a  voice  that  seems  to  say, 
Now  near  at  hand,  now  far  away, 
'Witchery — witchery — witchery.'  " 

The  family  Mniotiltidae  is  composed  of  the  wood  war- 
blers, found  only  in  America,  and  consists  of  about  one  hun- 
dred species.  About  seventy  of  them  visit  the  United  States. 
They  are  migrants,  and  in  the  distances  they  travel  in  migra- 
tion and  in  the  size  of  the  areas  they  occupy  during  the  breed- 
ing season,  present  an  enormous  range  of  variation.  "They 
capture  their  insect  food"  says  Chapman,  "in  a  variety  of  ways. 
Some  species  flit  actively  from  branch  to  branch,  taking  their 
prey  from  the  more  exposed  parts  of  the  twigs  and  leaves; 
others  are  gleaners  and  carefully  explore  the  under  surfaces  of 
leaves  or  crevices  in  the  bark,  while  several,  like  the  flycatch- 

193 


Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 


ers,  capture  a  large  part  of  their  food  on  the  wing.  As  a  rule, 
they  are  arboreal,  but  many  are  thicket  haunting,  and  some  are 
terrestrial." 

The  yellow  warbler  is  known  as  the  wild  canary,  summer 
yellowbird,  golden  warbler,  summer  warbler,  and  yellow  poll. 
As  its  name  indicates  its  general  color  is  yellow.  The  bill  of 
the  adult  male  is  of  a  light  blue  or  horn  color,  long,  as  com- 
pared with  the  size  of  the  bird  and  terminates  in  a  very  sharp 
point  ;  iris  of  eye  of  an  orange  yellow  ;  top  and  sides  of  head, 
clear  yellow  ;  back,  a  clear  yellowish  olive-green  ;  wings  and  tail 
dusky  yellow  ;  middle  and  greater  wing  coverts  broadly  tipped 
with  yellow;  primaries  and  tail  feathers,  dusky,  edged  with 
yellow  ;  tail  slightly  forked  ;  entire  lower  parts  yellow  with 
reddish  stripes  ;  legs  and  feet  light  brown.  Adult  female  paler 
yellow,  usually  without  streaks,  but  sometimes  with  a  few  in- 
distinct ones  on  the  chest. 

The  range  of  the  yellow  warbler  extends  from  Guiana 
and  Ecuador  north  to  the  Bering  Sea  and  the  Arctic  coast.  Of 
its  breeding  range  Mr.  Cooke  says  :  "If  a  map  of  the  United 
States  and  Canada  south  of  the  Barren  Grounds  was  colored 
to  represent  the  breeding  area  of  the  yellow  warbler,  the  uncol- 
ored  portions  would  comprise  Florida,  southern  Georgia,  and 
numerous  small  'islands'  representing  the  upper  parts  of  the 
eastern  mountains  and  such  parts  of  the  western  mountains  as 
are  above  6,000  to  8,000  feet.  The  summer  range  of  the  bird, 
including  the  range  of  the  subspecies  sonorana  in  the  south- 
western part  of  the  United  States  and  that  of  rubiginosa  in 
Alaska,  covers  approximately  40  degrees  of  latitude,  that  is 
to  say  30  degrees  to  70  degrees  and  110  of  longitude,  that  is 
to  say,  55  degrees  to  165  degrees.  The  winter  range  covers  31 
degrees  of  latitude,  that  is  to  say  24  degrees  north  to  7  degrees 
south  and  54  degrees  of  longitude,  that  is  to  say,  52  degrees  to 
106  degrees.  The  two  in  combination  thus  give  an  extension 
of  77  degrees  of  latitude  and  113  degrees  of  longitude."  He 
adds:  "The  extreme  points  of  the  yellow  warbler's  range  — 
northern  Alaska  and  western  Peru  —  are  farther  separated  than 
the  extremes  of  the  range  of  the  black-poll  warbler,  which  is 
considered  the  greatest  migrant  of  the  family.  Owing,  how- 
ever to  the  southerly  extension  of  the  breeding  range  of  the 


The  Yellow  Warbler  J95 

former,  it  is  likely  that  the  longest  migration  trips  of  black- 
polls  exceed  those  made  by  any  yellow  warblers." 

The  yellow  warbler  is  a  very  sprightly,  unsuspicious  and 
familiar  little  bird;  is  often  seen  in  our  towns  and  cities  as 
well  as  in  the  country,  in  and  about  our  gardens,  among  the 
blossoms  of  fruit  trees  and  shrubberies ;  and  on  account  of  its 
color,  is  very  noticeable. 

"Have  you  walked  beneath  the  blossoms  in  the  spring? 

In  the  spring? 
Beneath  the  apple  blossoms  in  the  spring?" 

It  is  then  in  the  early  May  that  the  yellow  warbler  will 
be  found  building  her  nest.  Usually  it  is  built  in  a  tree  in  the 
orchard  or  in  a  bush  and  is  a  remarkable  specimen  of  bird  ar- 
chitecture. It  is  cup-shaped  and  generally  built  in  the  triangu- 
lar fork  of  a  small  shrub  and  of  very  neatly  woven  plant-fibres,, 
fine  strips  of  bark,  fine  grasses  and  plant  down.  Its  inner  lin- 
ing is  made  with  plant  down,  soft  feathers  and  often  woven  to- 
gether with  horse-hair.  The  one  pictured  in  the  illustration  is 
not  a  good  specimen.  In  the  dainty  nest  is  laid  four  or 
five  bluish  white  eggs,  spotted  and  blotched  with  different 
shades  of  brown.  Often  it  raises  two  families  in  a  season. 
It  is  frequently  imposed  upon  by  the  cowbird  which  drops  one 
or  more  eggs  into  its  nest.  It  seems  to  have  learned  from  ex- 
perience that  the  strange  eggs  are  dangerous,  and  not  infre- 
quently constructs  a  false  bottom  over  them,  even  though  in 
doing  so  it  encloses  some  of  its  own  eggs,  and  builds  the  wall 
of  the  nest  high  enough  to  give  the  proper  depth  to  the  cup- 
shaped  cavity.  If  a  cowbird  continues  its  imposition  and  lays 
its  eggs  in  the  second  story  a  third  story  may  be  added,  and 
even  four  storied  nests  have  been  reported. 

Most  of  the  warblers  tarry  with  us  only  long  enough  to 
procure  the  necessary  food  for  their  journey  and  even  this 
short  stay  with  us  majces  of  them  a  very  beneficial  class  of 
birds,  for  they  come  at  the  very  time  that  the  insects  which  are 
most  injurious  are  depositing  their  eggs  in  the  leaf  buds  and 
upon  the  new  leaves  of  our  trees,  and  they  destroy  immense 
numbers  of  these.  The  Yellow  Warblers,  however,  remain 
with  us  in  large  numbers  in  our  cities,  towns  and  about  our 


ig6  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

homes  in  the  country  throughout  the  summer.  They  are  very 
active  and  sprightly  birds,  and  well  fitted  for  their  work  of 
taking  the  eggs  and  larvae  of  pernicious  insects  from  the  buds 
and  leaves  of  our  trees.  Their  adaptation  to  this  use  is  very 
noticeable  in  their  elegantly  formed,  sharp  bill.  With  it  they 
are  capable  of  taking  the  smallest  insect  egg,  and  in  doing  this 
they  are  of  the  very  busiest  of  our  insectivorous  birds.  They 
not  only  destroy  quantities  of  the  smaller  insects  and  their 
larvae  and  eggs  but  also  destroy  many  beetles.  Prof.  King 
examined  the  stomachs  of  four  birds  taken  between  September 
6  and  22  and  found  that  all  of  their  food,  excepting  a  single 
ant,  consisted  of  beetles.  One  stomach  contained  ten  of  them. 
The  spng  of  this  warbler  is  a  very  pleasing,  simple  "wee- 
cher-wee,  wee-cher-wee,"  often  repeated.  Mr.  Vandyke  inter- 
prets it  "witchery,  witchery,  witchery."  Mr.  Butler  says  "its 
note  seemed  to  run  like  'a-wit,  a-wit,  a-wit,  a-wit,  a-wit'  each 
pair  of  syllables  repeated  five  times  with  moderate  rapidity 
and  in  the  same  tone,  with  no  inflection.  Mr.  Chapman  says, 
"its  song — 'wee-chee,  chee,  chee,  chee-wee/  though  simple  has 
a  pleasing  happy  ring,"  and  Mr.  Marble  says,  "Sweet-sweet- 
sweet,  sweet,  sweet-sweeter-sweeter'  is  his  frequent  contribu- 
tion to  the  volume  of  nature."  This  is  a  fair  illustration  of 
how  variously  different  people  interpret  the  song  of  a  bird.  In- 
deed, as  Mr.  Stoddard  says, 

"How  songs  are  made 
Is  a  mystery, 
Which  studied  for  years 
Still  baffles  me." 

In  the  chapter  on  the  Blue  Jay  I  said  they  could  commun- 
icate with  each  other  intelligently,  and  quoted  from  Mr. 
Munte's  letter  in  which  he  told  about  two  jays  flying  away 
from  a  fruitless  attack  on  a  screech  owl  and  bringing  back  nine 
others  with  which  to  renew  the  attack.  Not  only  is  this  true 
of  the  Blue  Jays  but  of  other  species.  In  times  of  danger  the 
various  species  seem  to  understand  each  other,  and  will  re- 
spond to  a  danger  call  and  come  to  the  rescue  of  the  bird  or 
birds  that  are  in  danger  of  being  harmed.  While  tramping  in 
the  thicket  at  Somerleaze  one  afternoon  I  found  a  young 


The  Yellow  Warbler  i97 

brown  thrasher  upon  the  ground,  and  I  thought  I  could  do  him 
a  service  by  placing  him  upon  a  limb.  When  I  tried  to  do  so 
it  gave  a  "squawk"  and  instantly  the  parent  birds  came,  and 
they  gave  an  alarm  to  which  it  seemed  to  me  all  the  birds  of 
the  vicinity  responded — and  such  a  show  of  fight  as  they  did 
make !  On  another  occasion  I  had  been  tramping  down  Fall 
Creek  and  when  I  got  to  Buzzard's  Roost  I  was  very  tired.  I 
lay  down  on  the  grass  under  a  hornbeam  to  rest  and  in  doing 
so  must  have  come  very  near  to  the  nest  and  young  of  a  yellow 
warbler,  although  I  was  not  able  to  find  it.  Immediately  a 
pair  of  them  gave  the  alarm  and  instantly  the  bushes  about 
me  were  full  of  all  kinds  of  birds — some  of  which  I  had  never 
seen  before.  In  my  collection  of  clippings,  I  find  one,  by  whom 
written,  I  know  not,  which  well  says,  "Every  species  of  bird 
has  a  peculiarity  of  voice  possessed  by  no  other.  By  this  va- 
riety of  vocal  endowment,  birds  are  not  only  distinguished 
above  the  rest  of  the  animal  creation,  but  are  able  to  express 
to  one  another  their  wants  and  passions.  There  can  be  no 
doubt  that  this  power  of  communication  exists  not  only  be- 
tween the  sexes  but  between  all  individuals  of  the  same  spe- 
cies. The  least  experienced  observer  of  nature  knows  that 
the  approach  of  danger  is  expressed  by  a  universally  in- 
telligible cry;  which,  if  uttered  by  the  wren,  for  instance  is 
understood  by  the  turkey  cock  and  vice  versa.  Of  whatever 
species  the  one  may  be  which  first  perceives  the  approach  of  a 
bird  of  prey,  it  is  able  to  excite  the  attention  of  all  birds  in  the 
neighborhood  by  its  peculiar  cry  of  warning." 


CHAPTER  XXXV. 


August  20 — August  26. 

THE  PURPLE  MARTIN. 

Order — Passeres  Suborder — Oscines 

Family — Hirundinidse  Genus — Progne 

Species — Progne  subis. 

Length — 7.25  to  8.50;  wing,  5.65  to  6.20;  tail,  3.00  to  3.40. 
Migration — North,  April ;  south,  August. 

"  'Twit  twit,  twit  twit'  the  martins  come  again, 
Underneath  my  eaves,  about  my  window-pane; 
They  bring  me  all  the  spring  in  their  low  strain, 

'Twit  twit,  twit  twit!' 

Blythe  birds  of  mystery,  God-taught,  give  o'er 
Your  tireless  flight,  and  teach  me  half  your  lore. 
Now  black  against  the  sapphire  sky  they  soar, 
Now  flash  with  white  athwart  the  April  rain, 
Returning  ever  with  the  low  refrain, 

'Twit  twit,  twit  twit!'" 

The  family  Hirundinidse,  composed  of  the  swallows,  has  in 
it  about  eighty  species.  Of  these  we  have  six  species  in  the 
Middle  West,  namely,  the  purple  martin,  cliff  swallow,  barn 
swallow,  tree  swallow,  bank  swallow,  and  the  rough-winged 
swallow.  The  swallows  are  distinguished  by  their  small  bills, 
long,  powerful  wings  and  small  weak  feet.  They  live  almost 
exclusively  on  insects  which  they  capture  while  in  flight.  Their 
flight  is  strong,  skimming,  darting  and  exceedingly  graceful. 
When  not  in  flight  they  choose  conspicuous  perches  like  tele- 

199 


200  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

graph  wires,  gutters  and  the  eaves  of  barns  and  other  out- 
buildings. 

The  purple  martin  is  the  largest  of  the  swallow  family. 
The  bill  of  the  adult  male  is  brownish  black,  larger  than  that 
of  the  other  swallows,  with  a  wide  gape  and  is  arched  and 
somewhat  curved  at  the  tip;  eye  full  and  dark.  His  general 
color  is  of  glossy  steel  blue  with  purple  and  violet  reflections. 
Wings  are  about  six  inches  long  and  when  closed  are  rather 
longer  than  the  tail.  The  tail  is  considerably  forked  and  edged 
with  purple  blue.  The  tarsi  and  toes  are  naked,  and  he  can 
walk  on  the  ground  better  than  the  other  swallows.  The  adult 
female  differs  from  the  male  in  that  she  is  not  quite  so  large; 
her  upper  parts  are  blackish  brown,  with  blue  and  violet  re- 
flections thinly  scattered ;  chin  and  breast  grayish  brown ; 
sides  under  the  wings  darker ;  belly  and  vent  whitish,  not  pure, 
with  stains  of  dusky  and  yellow  ochre ;  wings  and  tail  blackish 
brown. 

The  flight  of  the  blue  martin  is  graceful,  easy  and  swift.  It 
is  a  migrant  who  comes  north  the  latter  part  of  March.  I  al- 
ways look  for  them  on  the  23d  of  that  month  and  almost  in- 
variably they  come.  My  lookout  for  them  has  been  from  the 
lunch  room  on  the  eighth  floor  of  the  building  in  which  our 
offices  are  located.  A  colony  of  these  birds  have  nested  in 
the  building  just  opposite,  in  the  very  center  of  the  city.  For 
several  years,  while  at  lunch,  I  have  been  watching  them.  In 
1904  they  did  not  come  until  after  the  middle  of  April — no 
doubt  because  of  the  very  cold  and  backward  spring  of  that 
year.  Their  range  extends  north  from  the  Argentine  Repub- 
lic and  Bolivia  through  the  eastern  part  of  the  United  States 
to  Manitoba,  Ontario  and  Newfoundland.  They  winter  south 
from  Mexico  and  they  breed  throughout  their  entire  range. 
With  those  that  come  north,  mating  and  nest  building  com- 
mences soon  after  their  arrival.  One  theory  of  migration  is 
that  the  birds  come  north  to  have  their  young.  The  fact  that 
the  blue  martin  breeds  throughout  its  entire  range  would  seem 
to  prove  that  this  theory  is  not  well  founded. 

Formerly  these  birds  built  their  nests  in  cavities  and  hol- 
lows of  trees,  but  in  this  regard  their  habits  have  changed. 
They  now  prefer  to  nest  in  gourds  and  boxes  put  up  for  them 


The  Purple  Martin  201 

about  our  homes.  Many  of  them  will  build  close  together  if 
the  martin  house  or  box  is  built  with  compartments  to  accom- 
modate them.  They  are  gregarious  in  their  habits.  Their  nests 
are  made  of  leaves,  twigs,  grasses,  feathers  and  other  soft  ma- 
terial. In  their  nesting  habits  they  are  quite  unlike  the  house 
martin  of  Europe,  which  is  sometimes  called  the  "Martlet." 
That  martin  attaches  its  nest  to  the  buildings,  much  like  our 
barn  swallows  do,  but  with  much  more  difficulty.  Often  it 
takes  them  more  than  a  week  to  lay  the  foundation  for  their 
nests.  In  doing  this  they  cling  to  the  wall  while  they  deposit 
the  mud  of  which  the  nest  is  built.  When  finished  the  nest 
takes  the  shape  of  a  half  hemisphere  and  is  lined  with  feathers 
and  bits  of  straw.  That  Shakespeare  is  the  greatest  of  all  the 
dramatists  is  universally  conceded ;  that  he  was  a  well  versed 
naturalist  must  be  admitted.  His  observations  were  accurate 
and  must  have  been  extensive.  His  descriptions  of  objects  of 
nature  are  always  accurate  and  felicitious.  For  instance,  in 
his  reference  to  the  "Martlet"  in  Act  I,  Scene  6  of  Macbeth,  he 
says : 

"This  quest  of  summer, 

The  temple-haunting  martlet,  does  approve, 
By  his  loved  mansionry,  that  the  heaven's  breath 
Smells  wooingly.  No  jutty,  frieze, 
Buttress,  nor  coigne  of  vantage,  but  this  bird 
Hath  made  his  pendant  bed,  and  procreant  cradle. 
Where  they  most  breed  and  haunt,  I  have  observed 
The  air  is  delicate." 

Returning  to  our  purple  martin,  we  note  that  it  lays  four 
to  five  white  eggs.  The  males  assist  in  incubation,  which  lasts 
from  twelve  to  fifteen  days.  The  young  leave  the  nest  in 
eighteen  to  twenty-one  days.  Generally  two  broods  are  reared 
in  a  season. 

The  purple  martins  have  always  been  regarded  as  useful 
birds.  The  Mohegan  Indians  said  that  it  was  "the  bird  that 
never  rests."  They  had  a  special  liking  for  it,  and  often  fast- 
ened a  gourd  to  their  tent  poles  to  invite  its  friendship.  Audu- 
bon  tells  us  that  in  his  traveling  among  the  Indians  he  found 
that  they  hung  up  calabashes  for  the  martins,  so  they  would 
keep  the  vultures  from  the  deerskins  and  venison  they  were 


202  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

drying.  The  negroes  of  the  south  have  but  little  consideration 
for  the  birds,  but  they  are  the  friends  of  the  purple  martin, 
and  from  poles  near  their  cabins  one  will  see  gourds  suspend- 
ed for  them.  Mr.  Bradford  Torrey  while  traveling  in  the  south 
noticed  this,  and  curious  to  know  what  they  were  for,  asked  an 
old  negro  why  they  were  put  up.  He  answered :  "Why,  dey 
is  martins'  boxes.  No  dangah  of  hawks  carrying  off  de  chick- 
ens so  long  as  de  martins  am  around."  And  this  gives  promi- 
nence to  an  interesting  fact,  and  that  is  these  birds  are  useful 
in  protecting  our  domestic  fowls  from  the  hawks,  crows  and 
blue  jays.  They  are  great  fighters  and  will  not  allow  any  of 
these  birds  to  come  about  where  they  have  their  nesting  places. 

The  'food  of  the  purple  martin  is  entirely  insectiverous, 
consisting'  n^Sily  of  wasps,  bees,  beetles  and  other  insects 
found  in  flight',  for  they  capture  their  food  as  they  fly.  There 
are  those  who  say  that  "wasps,  beetles  and  all  manner  of  in- 
jurious insects  constitute  its  diet,"  and  that  they  ought  to  be 
protected  for  the  purpose  of  exterminating  the  mosquito.  They 
seem  to  forget  that  the  martin  destroys  many  beneficial  in- 
sects. Professor  King  tells  us  that  five  which  he  examined 
had  eaten  14  bees,  8  tiger  beetles,  2  butterflies,  9  breeze  flies, 
6  dragon  flies  and  3  molusks.  Some  of  these  are  very  benefi- 
cial to  man.  Perhaps  no  bird  or  other  creature  destroys  more 
mosquitos  than  the  dragon  fly,/  and  of  all  our  insects  the  bee 
is  the  most  useful. 

It  is  worth  while,  however,  to  protect  these  birds  and  put 
up  boxes  for  them  about  our  homes,  for  they  do  more  good 
than  harm  and  their  notes  are  pleasing  and  their  flight  is  in- 
teresting. Their  cheery  songs  are  heard  until  about  the  20th 
of  August.  Then  they  assemble  in  large  flocks  and  by  their  cack- 
ling and  twittering  seem  to  be  discussing  their  departure  to  the 
south.  After  leaving  they  return  in  a  day  or  two  before  mak- 
ing their  final  departure.  Do  they  get  homesick  after  they 
have  gone  some  distance,  and  return  once  more  to  look  upon 
the  familiar  scenes?  One  can  easily  imagine  how  "dear  to 
their  hearts  are  the  scenes  of  their  childhood,"  and  of  their 
nest  building  and  brood  rearing.  This  is  another  of  the  mys- 
teries of  bird  life. 


CHAPTER  XXXVI. 


August  27 — September  3. 

THE  BARN  SWALLOW. 

Order — Passeres  Suborder — Oscines 

Family— Hirundinidae  Genus — Ghelidon 

Species — Chelidon  erythrogaster. 
Length — 5.75  to  7.75  ;  wing,  4.60  to  4.90 ;  tail,  3.70  to  4.10. 

Migration — North,  April;  south,  August. 

"Hurrah,  the  swallow,  the  swallow  is  come, 
Bringing  the  spring  from  his  southern  home. 

The  beautiful  hours,  the  beautiful  year! 
Hurrah,  the  swallow  is  back  from  his  flight, 
With  his  back  of  jet  and  his  breast  of  white, 

The  summer's  earliest  harbinger!" 

The  barn  swallow  is  a  full  cousin  of  the  blue  martin  and 
the  handsomest  member  of  the  family.  The  bill  of  the  adult  male  is 
short,  very  weak,  broad  at  the  base  and  suddenly  compressed 
at  the  tip ;  gape  very  wide ;  iris  of  eye,  dark  hazel ;  color 
above  of  a  steel  blue,  with  concealed  white  in  the 
middle  of  the  back,  chin  and  breast ;  wings  long,  narrow,  acute 
and  strong,  thus  enabling  it  to  fly  almost  constantly  with  an 
easy  skimming  motion ;  tail  deeply  and  evenly  forked  with  the 
two  outer  feathers  nearly  double  the  length  of  the  others,  and 
it  is  used  to  great  advantage  as  a  rudder  in  directing  its  flight ; 
underneath  the  plumage  is  a  bright  chestnut  brown  and  bril- 
liant buff  that  glistens  in  the  sunlight;  spots  of  white  on  the 
inner  web  of  all  the  tail  feathers,  except  the  inner  pair;  legs 

203 


204  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

short,  unfeathered  and  weak ;  feet  very  small  and  weak  and  of 
very  little  use  to  the  bird,  except  when  perching.  The  adult 
female  differs  from  the  male  in  having  the  belly  and  vent  ru- 
fous white,  instead  of  light  chestnut,  and  the  exterior  tail 
feathers  are  shorter. 

The  usual  flight  of  this  swallow  is  sixty  miles  an  hour,  but 
it  is  said  that  it  can  fly  at  a  speed  of  two  miles  a  minute,  or 
one  hundred  and  twenty  miles  an  hour.  It  is  a  migrant,  whose 
range  extends  from  Brazil  north  to  Greenland  and  Alaska, 
and  east  and  west  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  Ocean.  It 
breeds  from  Mexico  north  throughout  its  northern  range,  and 
winters  in  the  tropics  of  both  of  the  Americas. 

It  is  said  that  they  mate  for  life,  and  when  mated  that 
they  return  year  after  year  to  the  same  place  to  build  their 
nests.  Soon  after  their  return  to  the  north  they  commence  the 
work  of  nest  building. 

"The  swallow  is  a  mason, 

And  underneath  the  eaves 
He  builds  a  nest  and  plasters  it 

With  mud  and  hay  and  leaves." 

Their  bracket-like  nest  is  fastened  beneath  the  eaves  or  to 
the  sides  of  the  rafters  of  a  barn  or  other  out-building  or  un- 
der the  arch  of  an  old  bridge,  and  is  made  in  the  form  of  an 
inverted  cone,  with  a  slice  cut  off  one  side.  At  the 
top  it  has  a  kind  of  shelf,  on  which  the  birds  sit 
occasionally,  as  is  shown  in  the  illustration.  The  shell 
of  the  nest  is  made  of  pellets  of  mud  mixed  with  hay,  as 
plasterers  mix  hair  with  mortar  to  make  it  less  brittle;  the 
mud  is  about  an  inch  thick  and  placed,  as  is  seen  in  the  illus- 
tration, in  regular  layers.  The  inside  of  the  nest  is  filled  with 
fine  hay  and  leaves,  well  stuffed  in,  and  covered  with  a  hand- 
ful of  downy  feathers,  which  usually  overhang  the  nest.  In 
this  nest  are  laid  from  four  to  six  white  eggs  marked  with 
dots  and  blotches  of  reddish  brown  and  purple.  Incubation 
lasts  about  thirteen  days.  Both  birds  assist  in  this  and  occupy 
the  nest  at  night  until  the  young  are  hatched.  Two  broods 
are  reared  in  a  season,  the  first  in  May  and  the  second  in  July. 
The  young  are  distinguished  from  the  old  by  the  absence  of 


The  Barn  Swallow  205 

the  elongated  tail  feathers,  these  alone  being  the  mark  of  the 
maturity  of  the  birds. 

These  swallows  have  always  been  recognized  by  the  farm- 
ers as  their  friends,  and  in  the  construction  of  their  barns  they 
usually  provide  openings  for  them  to  go  in  and  out.  Some 
of  the  farmers  have  a  supersitition  that  ill  luck  will 
come  to  a  person  who  kills  them  and  that  a  building  which 
they  take  possession  of  will  not  be  struck  by  lightning.  Wheth- 
er this  be  true  or  not,  their  sprightly  warble  makes  even  the 
rudest  barn  cheerful  and  homelike,  and  because  of  the  good 
service  they  render  to  the  farmer  in  dstroying  the  flies  and 
gnats  which  worry  the  horses  and  cattle  they  deserve  his  pro- 
tection. They  feed  almost  exclusively  upon  these  and  other 
harmful  insects,  which  they  take  from  the  air  while  in  flight. 
Nothing,  perhaps,  adds  more  to  the  beauty  of  our  landscapes 
than  the  twittering  and  flight  of  these  birds  when  they  are 
taking  their  food.  The  quickness  of  their  flight  and  the  grace- 
ful curves  made  by  them  as  they  wheel  to  and  fro  through  "the 
sky  blue"  is  pleasing  and  interesting  in  the  highest  degree. 
Near  by  where  I  leave  the  interurban  cars  to  drive  to  Somer- 
leaze  is  one  of  the  old-fashioned  barns  close  by  the  river  side. 
This  is  a  favorite  place  for  these  birds.  Many  a  half  hour 
have  I  sat  and  watched  them,  while  I  waited  for  the  cars  or 
wagon.  They  love  to  fly  up  and  down  the  river,  and  often 
they  dip  into  and  skim  over  the  surface  of  the  water  for  quite 
a  distance.  I  have  always  enjoyed  these  birds. 

Longfellow's  Evangeline  has  been  one  of  the  dearest 
poems  to  me  in  my  life,  for  the  sad  sweet  story  it  tells,  for  its 
beautiful  language  and  for  its  many  beautiful  descriptive  pas- 
sages of  the  woods  and  all  nature.  In  it  the  poet  refers  to  the 
swallows  and  the  strange  legend  concerning  them.  In  the 
happy  childhood  of  Gabriel  and  Evangeline, 

"Oft  in  the  barn  they  climbed  to  the  populous  nests  on  the  rafters, 
Seeking  with  eager  eyes  the  wonderful  stone  which  the  swallow 
Brings  from  the  shore  of  the  sea  to  restore  sight  to  the  fledglings. 
Lucky  was  he  who  found  that  stone  of  the  swallows." 

I  am  glad  that  I  have  lived  during  the  last  three  score 
years  and  ten — the  most  momentous  evolutionary  years  of 


2o6  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

the  world's  history.  I  have  witnessed  the  evolution  of  the  cut- 
ting of  wheat  with  the  sickle  and  threshing  it  out  with  a  flail 
to  cutting  it  with  a  McCormick  harvester  and  threshing  it  out 
with  a  Cyclone  thresher.  When  I  was  a  boy  we  harvested  it 
with  the  sickle  and  cradle  and  tramped  out  the  grain  with  our 
horses.  In  our  neighborhood  there  was  but  one  barn  and  it 
was  a  very  large  one  with  a  threshing  floor.  To  it  my  father 
hauled  his  wheat  and  threshed  it.  We  opened  the  sheaves  of 
wheat  and  laid  them  on  the  barn  floor  in  a  circle  with  the  heads 
inward.  Then  we  unhitched  our  horses,  led  them  in  on  the 
wheat,  and  brother  and  I  rode  them  around  and  around  over 
the  wheat  until  the  grain  was  separated  from  the  straw.  This 
I  have  done  for  days  at  a  time,  and  it  got  to  be  very  tire- 
some and  monotonous.  About  the  only  things  to  divert  our 
attention  were  the  nests  of  the  wasps  and  barn  swallows  over- 
head against  the  rafters  of  the  barn.  These  I  watched  with 
wonder  and  increasing  interest.  I  knew  nothing  about  the 
legend  of  "that  wonderful  stone  which  the  swallow  brings 
from  the  shore  of  the  sea,"  but  I  did  wish  that  I  could  get  up 
there,  so  high,  and  learn  how  the  swallows  fastened  their 
nests  to  the  rafters.  There  must  have  been  more  than  a 
hundred  of  the  nests  in  that  barn.  The  twittering  of  the 
swallows  constantly  reminded  us  of  their  presence.  In  addi- 
tion to  the  twittering  song,  their  call  note  is  a  "soft  and  affec- 
tionate twitt,  twitt,  and  the  cry  given  in  time  of  danger  a 
harsh  trrrr,  trrrr." 

There  is  a  beautiful  legend  of  the  swallow  which  Leland 
puts  in  verse : 

"When  Jesus  hung  upon  the  cross 
The  birds,  'tis  said,  bewailed  the  loss 
Of  Him  who  first  to  mortals  taught, 
Guiding  with  love  the  life  of  all, 
And  heeding  e'en  the  sparrow's  fall. 
But  as  old  Sweedish  legends  say, 
Of  all  the  birds  upon  that  day, 
The  swallows  felt  the  deepest  grief, 
And  longed  to  give  the  Lord  relief, 
And  chirped  when  any  near  would  come, 
'Hugswalaa   swala,   swal   homon!' 
Meaning  as  they  who  tell  it  deem, 
'Oh  cool,   oh   cool,   and   comfort  Him!" 


The  Barn  Swallow  207 

Hence  comes  the  word  "swallow,"  meaning  the  bird  of  con- 
solation. 

They  leave  through  the  month  of  August,  being  rarely 
found  in  September.  Preparatory  to  their  journey  southward 
they  gather  in  great  flocks.  Their  manoeuvering  seems  to  in- 
dicate that  the  old  ones  are  training  the  young  ones  for  their 
long  journey.  Miss  Merriam  says  that  in  making  these  jour- 
neys, "sometimes  they  can  be  followed  from  farm  to  farm. 
They  go  so  slowly  and  stop  so  often  on  the  way  that  the 
young  birds  get  used  to  following  the  old  ones.  Then  they 
make  prolonged  stops  at  definite  roosts,  sometimes  in  trees 
and  sometimes  in  marshes  along  the  rivers."  I  have  read  an 
account  of  one  of  these  marsh  roosts  in  Arkansas,  where  it  was 
estimated  that  more  than  a  million  of  these  birds  congregate  at 
night.  Mrs.  Bates  in  The  Auk,  vol.  XXII,  in  giving  an  ac- 
count of  one  of  them,  says  that  in  the  evening  when  they  begin 
pouring  in,  at  intervals  clouds  of  them  would  evolve  something 
like  order  out  of  their  numbers  and  perform  en  masse  fantastic 
curves,  spirals,  counter-marches,  snake-like  twists  and  turns, 
with  the  sky  for  a  background.  It  is  always  with  regret  that 
we  witness  their  departure,  and  with  Edmund  Clarence  Sted- 
man,  we  may  say : 

"Whither  away,  swallow, 

Whither  away? 

Canst  thou  no  longer  tarry  in  the  north, 
Here  where  our  roof  so  well  hath  screened  thy  nest? 

Not  one  short  day? 

Wilt  thou — as  if  thou  human  wert — go  forth 

And  wander  far  from  them  who  love  thee  best? 

Whither  away?" 


From  col.  Eugene  Bliss. 
93 


CHIMNEY  SWIFT. 

(Chaetura  pelagica.) 

2-3  Life-Size. 


Copyrighted  1900,  by 
A.  W.Mumford,  Chicago. 


CHAPTER  XXXVII. 


September  4 — September  10. 

THE  CHIMNEY  SWIFT. 

Order — Macrochires  Suborder — Cypseli 

Family — Micropodidas  Subfamily — Chaeturinae 

Genus — Chsetura  Species — Chsetura  pelagica. 

Length— 5.25  to  5.40;  wing,  5.00  to  5.25  ;  tail,  1.90  to  2.15. 
Migration — North,  April ;  south,  September. 

"The  swift  is  wheeling  and  gleaming, 

The  brook  is  brown  in  its  bed, 
Rain  from  the  cloud  is  streaming, 

And  the  bow  bends  overhead. 
The  charm  of  the  winter  is  broken! 

The  last  of  the  spell  is  said." 

The  family  Micropodidse  is  composed  of  the  swifts.  Of 
these  there  are  about  seventy-five  species  distributed  through- 
out the  world.  About  one-half  of  them  are  American  birds, 
but  only  four  of  them  are  found  in  North  America.  They 
have  great  powers  of  flight,  are  insectivorous  birds  and  take 
their  food  while  in  flight. 

"How  seldom  on  earth  do  we  see  her  alight! 
She  dwells  in  the  skies,  she  is  ever  above. 
It  is  on  the  wing  that  she  takes  her  repose, 
Suspended  and  poised  in  the  regions  of  air; 
'Tis  not  in  our  fields  that  her  sustenance  grows; 
It  is  winged  like  herself, — 'tis  ethereal  fare!" 

The  chimney  swift,  frequently  called  the  chimney  swal- 
low, was  formerly  placed  as  a  member  of  the  swallow  family. 

209 


2io  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

but  laterly  has  been  placed  in  a  family  composed  of  the  swifts, 
and  next  to  the  family  of  hummingbirds  on  account  of  cer- 
tain anatomical  peculiarities,  and  particularly  because  of  the 
absence  of  the  singing  muscles  in  the  lower  larynx.  The  male 
and  female  are  alike  in  appearance.  They  resemble  the  swal- 
lows in  general  form  and  habits.  The  bill  is  more  suddenly 
curved,  unprovided  with  bristles  at  the  base,  and  is  brown; 
eye  black,  surrounded  by  a  bare  blackish  skin  or  orbit;  color 
above  a  sooty  brown  with  a  greenish  tinge,  a  little  paler  on 
the  rump ;  wing,  black,  extremely  long,  curved,  and  when 
closed  extends  an  inch  and  a  half  beyond  the  tail ;  tail,  black, 
very  short,  rounded,  and  each  feather  ends  in  a  spine  like 
that  of  the  woodpecker;  underparts  paler  with  the  chin  and 
throat  grayish ;  tarsi  short  and  weak,  and  are  more  or  less 
feathered ;  toes  black,  short  and  thick  as  in  no  other  bird,  and 
all  four  of  them  may  be  extended  forward ;  claws  curved  and 
strong. 

The  swift  is  a  migrant  who  comes  north  in  April  and  re- 
turns south  in  October.  Major  Bendire  says  that  its  range  ex- 
tends through  "Eastern  North  America ;  north  in  the  south- 
ern portions  of  the  Dominion  of  Canada  to  about  latitude  50 
degrees ;  in  the  interior,  in  Northwestern  Manitoba,  to  about 
latitude  52.30  degrees,  and  probably  still  farther;  west  in  the 
United  States  to  eastern  North  and  South  Dakota,  eastern 
Nebraska  and  Kansas,  the  Indian  Territory  and  Texas ;  south 
in  winter  to  Jalapa,  Vera  Cruz,  Cozumel  and  Yucatan,  Mex- 
ico and  probably  still  farther."  Note  that  he  says  "probably." 
This  is  significant.  Thereby  hangs  a  mystery,  and  who  will 
solve  it?  Gilbert  White,  the  great  English  naturalist,  was  in- 
terested in  it.  In  his  poem  entitled  The  Naturalist's  Summer 
Evening  Walk,  he  writes : 

"To  mark  the  swift  in  rapid,  giddy  ring, 
Dash  round  the  steeple,  unsubdued  of  wing; 
Amusive  birds!     Say,  where  is  your  hid  retreat, 
When  the  frost  rages  and  the  tempest  beats? 
Whence  your  return  by  nice  instinct  led, 
When  spring,  soft  season,  lifts  her  bloomy  head? 
Such,  baffled  searches  mock  men's  prying  pride, 
The  God  of  Nature  is  your  secret  guide." 


The  Chimney  Swift  211 

And  that  same  question  of  migration  still  mocks  "man's 
prying  pride,"  and  now,  as  then,  it  is  true  that  the  "God  of  Na- 
ture is  their  secret  guide." 

The  early  naturalists,  including  Linnaeus  and  Kalm,  be- 
lieved that  the  swallows,  including  the  swifts,  buried  them- 
selves in  water  under  the  freezing  line,  or  slept  in  the  crevices 
of  rocks,  but  modern  naturalists,  with  authentic  accounts  of 
their  having  settled  upon  the  masts  and  sails  of  ships  when 
on  their  passage  to  and  from  countries  where  they  pass  the 
winter,  disbelieve  that  theory.  Still,  the  mystery  is  not  cleared 
up.  Mr.  Wells  W.  Cooke  in  his  bulletin  on  the  migration  of 
birds  says:  "The  chimney  swift  is  one  of  the  most  abundant 
and  best  known  birds  of  the  eastern  part  of  the  United  States. 
With  troops  of  fledglings,  catching  their  winged  prey  as  they 
go,  and  lodging  by  night  in  some  tall  chimney,  the  flocks  drift 
slowly  south,  joining  with  other  bands  until  on  the  northern 
coast  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  they  become  an  innumerable  host. 
Then  they  disappear.  Did  they  drop  into  the  water  and  hi- 
bernate in  the  mud,  as  was  believed  of  old,  their  obliteration 
could  not  have  been  more  complete.  In  the  last  week  in 
March  a  joyful  twittering  far  overhead  announces  their  return 
to  the  Gulf  coast,  but  the  intervening  five  months  is  still  the 
swift's  secret." 

The  chimney  swift  gets  its  distinctive  name  from  its  habit 
of  nesting  and  roosting  in  chimneys.  Formerly  they  nested 
and  roosted  in  hollow  trees.  Of  their  roosting  Audubon's  ac- 
count of  a  rendezvous  in  a  hollow  sycamore  which  was  ten- 
anted by  about  8,000  or  9,000  of  them  is  interesting.  He  says : 
"The  sun  was  going  down  behind  the  Silver  Hills ;  the  even- 
ing was  beautiful ;  thousands  of  swallows  were  flying  closely 
above  me,  and  three  or  four  at  a  time  were  pitching  into  the 
hole,  like  bees  hurrying  into  their  hive.  I  remained,  my  head 
leaning  to  the  tree,  listening  to  the  roaring  noise  made  within 
by  the  birds  as  they  settled  and  arranged  themselves,  until  it 
was  quite  dark,  when  I  left  the  place,  although  I  was  convinced 
that  many  more  had  to  enter.  Next  morning  I  was  early 
enough  to  reach  the  place  long  before  the  least  appearance  of 
daylight,  and  placed  my  head  against  the  tree.  All  was  silent 
within.  I  remained  in  that  posture  probably  twenty  minutes, 


212  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

when  suddenly  I  thought  the  great  tree  was  giving  way  and 
coming  down  upon  me.  Instinctively  I  sprung  from  it;  but 
when  I  looked  up  to  it  again,  what  was  my  astonishment  to 
see  it  standing  as  firm  as  ever.  The  swallows  were  now  pour- 
ing out  in  a  black,  continuous  stream.  I  ran  back  to  my  post, 
and  listened  in  amazement  to  the  noise  within,  which  I  could 
compare  to  nothing  else  than  the  sound  of  a  large  wheel  re- 
volving under  a  powerful  stream." 

The  nest  of  the  chimney  swift  generally  is  attached  to  the 
inside  of  a  chimney,  as  is  aptly  shown  in  the  illustration.  An 
average  nest  is  about  three  inches  in  outer  diameter  by  two 
inches  in  depth.  It  is  semi-circular  and  half-saucer  shaped, 
and  built  up  entirely  of  small  dry  twigs,  averaging  from  one- 
tenth  to  one-sixteenth  of  an  inch  in  diameter  and  from  one  to 
two  and  a  half  inches  in  length..  There  is  no  inner  lining  of  any 
kind  used,  the  eggs  lying  on  the  bare  twigs.  The  twigs  are 
gathered  by  the  bird  while  in  flight,  the  bird  breaking  them 
off  with  its  beak  while  flying  past.  The  twigs  are  fastened 
to  each  other  and  to  the  wall  with  a  gummy  secretion  from 
the  mouth.  In  chimneys  the  nests  are  ordinarily  glued  to  the 
sides,  from  five  to  twelve  feet  below  the  top.  Only  a  small 
quantity  of  the  glue  is  secreted  daily,  and  because  of  this  the 
completion  of  the  entire  structure  requires  about  eighteen 
days,  if  the  weather  is  favorable,  and  if  unfavorable  much 
longer.  The  bird  has  the  power  of  controlling  the  laying  of 
eggs,  and  can  discontinue  it  for  one  or  more  days  if  she  thinks 
necessary.  The  eggs  are  white  and  four  to  five  make  a  set. 

Incubation  begins  before  the  last  egg  is  laid  and  lasts 
eighteen  days,  and  both  birds  take  part  in  it.  During  the  first 
week  the  blind  and  almost  naked  young  are  placed  so  that 
their  heads  come  together  in  the  center  of  the  nest  with  the 
anal  regions  near  to  its  rim.  The  arrangement  is  important  for 
the  cleanliness  of  the  home,  since  the  parents  do  not  seem  to 
trouble  themselves  with  removing  the  excrement.  The  second 
week,  when  the  young  are  fast  outgrowing  the  little  home,  a 
different  arrangement  is  necessary ;  the  heads  then  lie  flat 
against  the  shaft  with  the  anterior  part  of  the  body  covering 
and  protecting  the  base  of  the  nest  and  the  posterior  part  pro- 
truding over  its  rim.  At  the  beginning  of  the  third  week  the 


The  Chimney  Swift  213 

young  swifts  leave  the  nest,  and  cling  to  the  wall  with  their 
feet,  side  by  side,  below  the  nest,  with  their  heads  upwards 
and  tails  downward,  the  latter  of  which  they  use  as  a  sup- 
port. The  fourth  week  is  spent  entirely  inside  the  chimney, 
hanging  against  its  sides  and  not  higher  up  than  the  nest. 
When  they  leave  the  chimney  for  the  first  time,  it  is  heralded 
all  over  the  neighborhood,  and  the  event  becomes  the  occasion 
for  great  activity  and  noise  and  numbers  of  the  birds  will  be 
seen  chasing  each  other  through  the  air.  After  that  the  old 
birds  feed  the  young  in  flight. 

At  Somerleaze  my  son  built  for  himself  and  his  wife,  at 
one  corner  of  the  lawn,  what  he  calls  a  "shack"  with  an  old- 
time  fireplace  and  chimney  to  it.  This,  to  their  great  annoy- 
ance, and  yet  to  our  great  delight,  brings  the  chimney  swifts 
to  us  annually.  I  have  said  to  their  annoyance.  This  is  so 
because  they  make  the  chimney  filthy  with  their  excrement, 
and  the  much  noise  they  make  in  feeding,  both  day  and  night,  for 
it  is  true  that  they  do  feed  their  young  at  night.  And  I  have 
said  to  our  delight,  and  this  is  so  because  of  the  fact  that  there 
is  not  a  much  more  interesting  and  delightful  scene  than  that 
of  these  birds  scurrying  to  and  fro,  and  wheeling  in  and  out 
in  midair,  and  all  the  while  keeping  up  their  pleasant  twitter- 
ings. A  cloudy,  damp  day  is  their  delight  for  this  rollicking. 
They  have  little  to  do  with  the  earth's  plants  and  trees,  since 
they  never  alight  except  in  a  hollow  tree  or  chimney.  They 
are  birds  of  constant  flight,  and  have  wonderful  powers  of 
endurance.  They  are  the  fastest  birds  on  wing  that  we  have. 
It  is  said  that  they  have  been  known  to  attain  a  speed  of  two 
hundred  miles  an  hour  and  to  have  covered  a  thousand  miles 
in  twenty-four  hours. 

When  they  have  found  a  nesting  place  they  become  much 
attached  to  it,  and  will  return  to  it  for  many  years.  In  the 
October  number  for  1901  of  American  Ornithology,  Dr. 
H.  L.  Wood  tells  of  a  swift's  nest  which  was  in  his  father's 
hay  loft.  He  says :  "I  remember  my  father's  telling  me  that 
this  nest  had  been  there  to  his  knowledge  for  fourteen  years. 
*  *  *  I  used  often  to  catch  the  birds  as  they  clung  to  the 
side  of  the  loft  and  show  my  playmates  the  spikes  in  their 
tails.  That  was  during  the  season  of  '80.  The  following  spring, 


214  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

acting  upon  the  advice  of  my  father,  I  made  two  bracelets  of 
coiled  hair  wire,  and  catching  the  birds,  fastened  one  about 
the  leg  of  each.  For  the  following  five  years  the  same  pair 
of  swifts  occupied  the  nest.  *  *  *  The  summer  of  '90  I 
climbed  into  the  old  loft,  and  found  to  all  appearances  the  same 
old  nest,  and  upon  catching  the  old  birds,  found  that  one  still 
had  the  copper  wire  upon  its  leg.  *  *  *  Two  interesting 
facts  were  demonstrated :  First  that  the  swift  at  least  remains 
mated  for  life,  and,  second,  that  they  are  a  long  lived  bird. 
*  *  *  The  nest  to  my  knowledge  has  been  there  over  thirty 
years." 

John  James  Audubon,  the  famous  American  ornitholo- 
gist, who  wrote  so  interestingly  about  the  swift,  was  born  May 
4,  1780,  on  a  plantation  in  Louisiana.  From  his  earliest  child- 
hood to  the  time  of  his  death,  a  passion  possessed  him  to  make 
long  journeys  on  foot  through  the  unbroken  forests,  from  the 
everglades  of  Florida  to  the  coasts  of  Labrador,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  studying  the  denizens  of  the  forest,  and  especially  the 
birds.  From  the  Great  Lakes  of  the  North  to  the  wildest  sol- 
itudes of  the  Western  prairies,  there  were  few  accessible  spots 
which  escaped  his  restless  wanderings.  In  1833  he  established 
himself  in  a  beautiful  residence,  Minnie's  land,  on  the  banks 
of  the  Hudson,  near  the  city  of  New  York,  and  he  died  there 
January  27,  1851,  the  place  now  being  called  Audubon  Park, 
he  then  being  near  seventy  years  old,  and  was  buried  in  Trin- 
ity cemetery,  near  by  his  residence.  "He  was  taken  ill  and 
sank  to  rest,"  says  one  who  was  present,  "as  a  child  sinks  to 
refreshing  sleep." 

A  beautiful  story  related  by  an  eye  witness  is  this :  "As  I 
stood  near  Trinity  cemetery  the  other  evening,  watching  the 
gathering  hosts  of  birds  circling  against  the  pale  light  of  the 
sky,  I  noticed  a  white-haired  old  man  leaning  against  a  tree 
and  gazing  upward.  From  north  and  south,  east  and  west, 
flocks  of  the  graceful  birds  were  arriving  every  moment  to 
join  the  swirling  multitudes.  There  were  literally  thousands 
of  them  swooping  in  a  wide  circle  over  the  silent  graveyard 
and  filling  the  air  with  plaintive  cries.  Suddenly  the  old  man 
said,  'What  a  beautiful  sight  that  is.  I  have  watched  these 
flights  for  years.  During  the  summer  the  birds  come  every 


The  Chimney  Swift  215 

evening  about  six  o'clock,  and  for  an  hour  or  more  fly  in  a 
swift  circle  overhead  seeking  rest/  'Why  have  they  chosen 
this  spot?'  I  asked.  'It  has  been  their  haunt  for  many  years/ 
said  the  old  man.  'I  like  to  think  it  is  because  their  friend  sleeps 
yonder.  Can  you  see  that  monument?  That  is  in  memory  of 
Audubon.  On  one  side  of  that  cross  are  the  sculptured  forms 
of  many  birds.  Just  a  block  away  is  the  old  mansion  where 
'Audubon  lived.  Every  evening  in  summer  the  chimney  swifts 
wing  their  swift  way  from  New  Jersey,  from  Westchester  and 
from  Long  Island,  and  swing  in  that  strange  circle  over  the 
tomb  of  the  naturalist  and  within  sight  of  the  place  where  he 
lived  and  worked.  It  seems  as  though  it  were  a  ceremony  be- 
fore a  shrine/  Overhead  the  birds  still  swirled  in  a  swift  cir- 
cle and  the  darkening  graveyard  lay  silent  but  for  the  soft 
rustling  of  the  leaves.  Suddenly  one  of  the  swifts  widened 
the  circle  and  a  hundred  swung  out  after  him.  The  twittering 
cries  grew  fainter  and  stopped.  The  first  detachment  circled 
toward  the  chimney  of  the  church  of  St.  Catharine  of  Genoa 
and  dropped  into  it  one  by  one.  They  had  not  all  disappeared 
when  another  company  swept  out  of  the  circle  and  disap-. 
peared.  Rapidly  the  host  grew  less  until  finally  the  last  of  the 
birds  had  darted  over  and  fluttered  into  the  chimney.  The  old 
man  walked  slowly  away.  All  was  darkness  beyond  the  iron 
gates,  and  silence." 

One  evening  in  the  autumn  of  1900,  as  I  walked  home  in 
Delaware  Street,  I  heard  a  great  twittering  of  birds  just  as  I 
approached  that  beautiful  edifice,  the  Jewish  Synagogue.  I 
stopped  to  ascertain  what  it  all  meant  and  discovered  that 
there  were  hundreds  of  chimney  swifts,  flying  in  a  great  circle 
around  the  tall  chimney  of  the  synagogue.  I  watched  them 
until  they  had  disappeared  into  the  great  chimney  for  the 
night's  rest.  The  manner  of  their  going  into  the  chimney  was 
much  the  same  as  that  of  those  that  "circled  toward  the  chim- 
ney of  the  Church  of  St.  Catharine  of  Genoa."  The  sight  was 
a  most  beautiful  one — one  that  I  shall  never  forget. 


CHAPTER  XXXVIII. 


September  11 — September  17. 

THE  SCARLET  TANAGER. 

Order — Passeres  Suborder — Oscines 

Family — Tanagridse  Genus — Piranga 

Species — Piranga  erythromelas 

Length— 6 150  to  7.50 ;  wing,  3.55  to  3.90 ;  tail,  2.80  to  3.25. 
Migration — North,  April ;  south,  September. 

"A  flame,  a  wandering  fire, 
With  wavering  desire 

From  bough  to  bough. 
Thou   winged,   wondrous   thing!- 
Of  glad,  of  golden  spring 

The  soul  art  thou, 
A  flame,  a  wandering  fire." 

The  family  Tanagridge,  composed  of  the  tanagers,  has  in 
it  about  three  hundred  and  fifty  species,  all  of  whom  are  Amer- 
ican birds.  Only  thirty-five  of  them  are  found  in  the  United 
States.  Of  these  the  summer  and  scarlet  tanagers  are  found  in 
the  Middle  West.  The  family  as  a  whole  are  noted  for  the 
brilliancy  of  their  plumage.  They  are  .forest  loving  birds  and 
feed,  on  the  flowers,  fruits  and  insects  found  there.  As  a  rule 
they  are  not  musical,  but  the  scarlet  tanager  is  an  exception 
to  the  rule. 

The  scarlet  tanager  is  known  by  the  other  names  of  black- 
winged  redbird,  firebird,  pocket-bird,  and  Canada  tanager.  The 
bill  of  the  adult  male  is  heavy  at  the  base,  arches  and  termi- 

217 


2i8  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

nates  in  a  sharp  point,  and  is  grayish  blue  basally  and  dull 
green  terminally ;  iris  of  the  eye  is  of  a  cream  colored  brown ; 
general  color  of  the  plumage  in  the  breeding  season  is  of  a 
bright  carmine ;  the  wings  are  pointed  and  black,  and  it  is  from 
these  it  gets  its  name  of  pocket  bird  because  of  their  having 
the  appearance  of  side  pockets ;  the  tail  is  notched  and  black ; 
the  legs  and  feet  are  a  pale  lavender  gray  or  a  lilaceous  gray- 
ish blue.  The  toes  are  long  and  armed  with  strong  claws. 
When  the  breeding  season  is  over,  the  bright  carmine  color  is 
superseded  above  by  a  yellowish  olive-green,  and  below  by 
yellow,  shaded  with  olive-green  laterally.  The  black  wings 
and  tail  are  retained.  The  color  of  the  adult  female  above  is 
an  olive  green,  below  greenish  yellow,  with  wings  and  tail 
dark,  highly  margined  with  olive.  Both  the  male  and  female 
are  beautiful  birds. 

The  scarlet  tanager  is  a  migrant  whose  range  extends  from 
Bolivia,  Peru  and  the  West  Indies  north  through  the  Eastern 
United  States  and  the  more  Southern  British  Provinces  to 
New  Brunswick,  Nova  Scotia,  Northern  Ontario,  and  Mani- 
toba. It  comes  north  about  the  first  of  May,  and  returns  south- 
ward by  the  middle  of  September.  The  males  come  north  a 
few  days  in  advance  of  the  females.  Its  breeding  range  ex- 
tends north  from  Virginia,  Kentucky  and  Southern  Illinois 
throughout  its  northern  geographical  range.  Mating  follows 
the  arrival  of  the  female,  and  nesting  commences  about  the 
middle  of  May.  The  nest  is  a  thin  flimsy  affair  composed  of 
fine  roots,  tendrils,  small  sticks  and  straws,  and  usually  is 
built  from  ten  to  twenty-five  feet  from  the  ground  on  a  hori- 
zontal limb.  In  the  summer  of  1904  one  of  them  was  built  in 
such  a  position  in  an  elm  tree  standing  about  twenty  feet  from 
our  residence  at  Somerleaze,  so  that  we  could  see  it  and  the 
birds  building  it  from  our  dining  room.  Both  birds  assist  in 
constructing  the  nest.  The  eggs,,  three  to  five  of  which  make 
a  set,  are  a  greenish  blue ;  finely  spotted  with  rufous-brown. 
Incubation  is  attended  to  by  the  female,  but  during  it  the  male 
is  attentive  to  her,  bringing  her  food,  and  singing  for  her  ben- 
efit from  the  top  of  some  tree  in  the  vicinity  of  the  nest. 

The  parent  birds  are  very  devoted  to  their  young.  Alex- 
ander Wilson,  the  great  American  ornithologist,  tells  of  catch- 


The  Scarlet  Tanager  2ig 

ing  a  young  tanager  and  carrying  it  a  half  mile  to  the  home  of 
his  friend  Mr.  William  Bartram,  and  putting  it  in  a  cage.  He 
says,  "as  it  refused  to  be  fed  by  me,  I  was  about  to  return  it 
back  to  the  place  where  I  had  found  it,  when,  toward  the  after- 
noon, a  scarlet  tanager,  no  doubt  its  own  parent,  was  seen  flut- 
tering round  the  cage,  endeavoring  to  get  in.  Finding  this  im- 
practicable, he  flew  off,  and  soon  returned  with  food  in  his 
bill,  and  continued  to  feed  it  until  sunset.  *  *  *  In  the 
morning,  almost  as  soon  as  day  broke,  he  was  again  seen 
most  actively  engaged  in  the  same  affectionate  manner  *  * 
On  the  third  or  fourth  day,  he  appeared  extremely  solicitious 
for  the  liberation  of  his  charge,  using  every  expression  of  dis- 
tressful anxiety,  and  every  call  and  invitation  that  Nature  had 
put  in  his  power,  for  him  to  come  out.  This  was  too  much  for 
the  feelings  of  my  venerable  friend ;  he  procured  a  ladder,  and, 
mounting  to  the  spot  where  the  bird  was  suspended,  opened 
the  cage,  took  out  the  prisoner,  and  returned  him  to  liberty  and 
to  his  parent,  who,  with  notes  of  great  exultation,  accompanied 
his  flight  to  the  woods." 

In  the  olive-green  color  of  the  female  scarlet  tanager,  we 
have  a  fine  instance  of  protective  coloration.  Her  nest  is  al- 
ways built  amidst  the  foliage  of  trees  with  like  colors,  and  this 
fact  helps  to  protect  it  and  its  contents  from  the  ravages  of 
its  enemies.  If  hers  was  the  color  of  the  male  she  would  be 
constantly  attacked  by  these,  and  quickly  her  kind  would  be- 
come extinct.  The  male  seems  to  appreciate  the  fact  and  ex- 
cept when  carrying  food  to  her,  he  remains  away  from  the  im- 
mediate locality  of  the  nest. 

"Athwart  the  shadows  of  the  woods, 

Flashes  a  meteor's  light, 
With  wings  like  scarlet  poppy-leaves, 

A  tanager  gleams  bright." 

He  finds  a  tall  tree  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  nest,  if  he 
can,  and  from  its  topmost  branch  sings  his  sweet  song  of  com- 
fort for  the  ears  of  his  mate. 

That  song  of  comfort  is  a  most  bewitching  one,  and 
his  brilliant  coat  most  readily  enables  one  to  find  the 
singer.  Indeed  if  one  desires  to  find  the  birds  readily, 


220  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

he  must  have  his  ears  as  well  trained  as  his  eyes.  I  shall 
not  forget  my  chase  after  a  scarlet  tanager  and  how  he  eluded 
me.  It  was  at  Somerleaze.  I  was  resting  myself  on  the  ver- 
anda, when,  for  the  first  time  I  heard  his  song.  It  was  new  to 
me.  I  took  my  glasses  and  went  after  it.  When  I  got  to  the 
tree  from  which  I  had  heard  it,  the  bird  had  flown.  Presently 

I  heard  him  from  another  tree,  and  again  he  eluded  me.    This 
he  did  many  times.    Finally,  however,  I  got  sight  of  him,  and 
one  can  hardly  understand  how  delighted  I  was  that  so  delic- 
ious a  song  should  come  from  such  a  beautiful  bird.     The 
song  is  much  like  that  of  the  robin,  and  the  singer  continues 
to  sing  it  through  August.    The  call  note  of  the  bird  is  "chip- 
churr"  and  he  says  it  as  plainly  as  I  can  do  it. 

At  Buzzard's  Roost,  during  the  summer  season,  we  have 
quite  a  number  of  these  birds.  A  favorite  place  for  them  is 
among  the  trees  on  the  north  side  of  the  hill  where  the  beau- 
tiful hepaticas  grow.  Quite  occasionally  they  come  to  the  yard 
of  the  cottage  to  get  food.  Their  food  consists  principally  of 
those  kinds  of  insects  that  frequent  and  do  injury  to  our  forest 
trees.  Prof.  F.  H.  King  examined  29  specimens,  and  found 
their  principal  food  was  as  follows :  26  caterpillars,  47  beetles, 

II  spiders,  7  grasshoppers.    They  also  had  eaten  ants,  ichneu- 
mon flies,  6  diptera,  6  hemipterous  insects  and  1  dragon  fly. 
Curculios,  elators,  and  leaf-chafers  formed  a  part  of  the  beetles 
eaten.    And  this  is  the  creditable  story  of  this 

"Magic  bird,  but  rarely  seen, 
Phoenix  in  our  forest  green, 

Plumed  with  fire  and  quick  as  flame — 
-     Phoenix!  else  thou  hast  no  name." 


31 


ROSE-BREASTED  GROSBEAK. 

(Habia  ludoviciana.) 

%  Life-size. 


CHAPTER  XXXIX. 


September  18 — September  24. 

THE  ROSE-BREASTED  GROSBEAK. 

Order — Passeres  Suborder — Oscines 

Family — Fringillidse  Genus — Habia 

Species — Zamelodia  ludoviciana. 

Length— 7.00  to  8.50;  wing,  3.90  to  4.15;  tail,  3.25  to  3.55. 
Migration — North,  May;  south,  September. 

Mr.  Robert  Ridgeway,  in  his  Birds  of  North  and  Middle 
America,  describes  twenty-nine  grosbeaks.  Of  these,  five  have 
been  identified  in  the  Middle  West,  namely  the  blue,  cardinal, 
evening,  pine  and  rose-breasted.  All  of  these  are  members  of 
the  family.  Fringillidse.  The  bill  of  the  adult  male  rose-breast- 
ed grosbeak  is  slightly  arched,  light  brown  at  the  base,  with 
upper  mandible  dusky  and  lower  a  yellowish  white;  iris  of 
eye  brown ;  head,  neck,  back  and  scapulars  black ;  rump  white ; 
wings  pointed,  black  with  large  patch  of  white  on  basal  por- 
tion of  primaries  and  white  spots  at  tips  of  the  greater  coverts ; 
tail  symmetrical,  nearly  even,  with  upper  coverts  black  with 
large  terminal  spots,  and  underneath  part  very  white ;  chest, 
median  portion  of  breast  and  under  wing  coverts  bright  rose 
red  or  light  carmine;  rest  of  underparts  of  body  white;  legs 
and  feet  grayish  horn  color,  the  toes  being  long,  slender  and 
terminated  with  long,  sharp  claws.  The  adult  female  above 
is  of  a  grayish  brown  color,  streaked  with  cream  buff  and 
blackish ;  buff  stripe  through  the  center  of  the  crown,  and  a 
whitish  one  over  the  eye;  wing  coverts  tipped  with  white;  un- 

221 


222  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

derparts  buffy,  streaked  with  brownish ;  under  wing  coverts 
orange  or  saffron  yellow. 

The  rose-breasted  grosbeak  is  a  migrant  whose  coming 
to  the  north  occurs  early  in  May  and  who  returns  south  from 
the  middle  of  September  to  the  middle  of  October.  Its  range 
extends  north  from  western  Ecuador  and  the  province  of  Santa 
Marta  in  Columbia  to  Labrador  and  Saskatchewan  and  from 
the  Atlantic  to  the  west  of  the  Great  Plains.  It  breeds  from 
the  higher  points  in  the  Carolinas  throughout  its  northern 
range.  Nest  building  begins  about  the  middle  of  May.  The 
female  does  most  of  the  work  in  building  the  nest,  which  is 
built  low  in  briar  bushes,  or  in  a  shrub  or  tree  at  the  edge  of 
the  woods  or  field.  As  will  be  seen  by  the  illustration,  it  is 
shallow  and  loosely  built  of  small  twigs  and  the  tendrils  of 
vines.  In  it  are  laid  three  to  five  greenish-blue  eggs,  thickly 
spotted  with  small  irregular  brownish  and  lilac  markings. 
Mr.  A.  R.  Dugmore  in  his  most  excellent  book,  Bird  Homes, 
says :  "It  is  not  a  difficult  nest  to  find,  as  the  male  bird,  whose 
brilliant  color  makes  him  so  conspicuous,  is  generally  to  be 
discovered  near  by,  and  when  the  nest  is  threatened  by  an  in- 
truder he  becomes  greatly  excited,  uttering  oft-repeated  sharp, 
piercing  notes,  and  occasionally  breaking  into  that  beautiful 
soft  song  so  peculiar  to  the  grosbeak.  When  he  is  seen  to  act 
in  that  manner  there  is  sure  to  be  a  nest  not  far  away,  and  a 
little  patient  searching  will  discover  its  whereabouts."  This 
is  an  exceedingly  good  record  for  the  bird.  All  observers  join 
in  giving  him  credit  for  his  devotion  to  his  home,  his  mate 
and  their  young.  He  assists  in  the  duties  of  incubation  and 
in  providing  food  for  the  nestlings.  They  leave  the  nest  in 
about  twelve  days,  and  are  fed  by  their  parents  for  a  consider- 
able time  after  they  have  left  it. 

The  rose-breasted  grosbeak  is  not  a  very  common  bird  in 
the  vicinity  of  Indianapolis.  I  have  found  only  one  pair  of 
them  at  Buzzard's  Roost,  and  they  were  found  in  the  strip  of 
timber  next  to  Fall  Creek.  At  Somerleaze  I  find  them  every 
year  in  a  swampy  tract  of  land  that  adjoins  our  thicket.  I  oc- 
casionally see  them  as  we  are  going  to  and  from  the  railroad 
station.  It  was  there  that  I. was  first  delighted  with  their 
song.  The  male  was  in  an  elm  by  the  roadside  and  so  perched 


The  Rose-Breasted  Grosbeak  223 

that  his  rose-breast  showed  to  the  best  advantage.  Not  only 
was  he  a  beautiful  bird,  but  his  song  was  most  delicious — so 
much  so  that  I  stopped  and  listened  to  it  for  several  minutes. 
I  shall  let  Miss  Blanchan  describe  his  song  and  how  he  renders 
it.  She  says :  "Vibrating  his  wings  after  the  manner  of  the 
mocking  bird,  he  pours  forth  a  marvelously  sweet,  clear,  mel- 
low song  (with  something  of  the  quality  of  the  oriole's,  robin's 
and  thrush's  notes),  making  the  day  on  which  you  first  hear 
it  memorable.  This  is  one  of  the  birds  that  sing  at  night.  A 
soft,  sweet,  rolling  warble,  heard  when  the  moon  is  at  its  full 
on  a  midsummer  night,  is  more  than  likely  to  come  from  the 
rose-breasted  grosbeak."  And  this  inspired  my  friend,  Miss 
Mamie  L.  Bass,  to  write : 

"Across  the  stillness  of  the  night 
As  witching  as  the  soft  moon's  light, 

A  clear,  sweet,  rolling  note  I  heard 
Pour  forth  from  happy  heart  of  bird; 

A  wooer  clad  in  colors  bright, 

His  coat  of  red,  and  black  and  white; 

A  pleading  prayer  of  love  he  sings, 
A  wealth  of  tenderness  he  brings. 

His  modest,  little  mate  so  shy, 
Who  watches  wistfully  close  by. 

Warm  mother  love  throbs  in  her  breast 
As  yearningly  she  guards  her  nest. 

He  sings  of  woods,  blue  skies  and  hills, 
With  strange  delight  her  soul  he  thrills. 

Sweet  singer  of  the  woodland  bowers, 
God  make  thy  joy  of  living  ours!" 

In  Plant  World,  Elizabeth  G.  Britton  says:  "It  has 
been  found  that  when  the  Colorado  Beetle  or  potato  bug  start- 
ed on  its  progress  eastward  it  met  with  but  little  resistance 
until  it  reached  the  State  of  Iowa.  Here,  so  the  story  is  told, 
a  farmer  noticed  that  after  anointing  his  potato  vines  with 
Paris  Green  a  number  of  rose-breasted  grosbeaks  lay  dead  on 
the  ground  in  the  morning.  He  watched  the  birds  and  found 
that  they  were  bolting  the  objectionable  insects  with  avidity. 


224  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

The  grosbeak  was  the  pioneer,  but  as  the  years  have  gone  by 
other  eastern  birds  have  conquered  their  distrust  of  the  nev 
food  and  relished  it."  In  Farmers'  Bulletin  No.  54,  U.  S. 
Department  of  Agriculture,  Professor  F.  E.  L.  Beal  tells  of 
one  potato  field  that  was  badly  infested  by  these  destructive 
insects.  "The  grosbeaks,"  he  says,  "visited  the  field  every  day 
and  finally  brought  their  fledged  young.  The  young  birds 
stood  in  a  row  on  the  topmost  rail  of  the  fence,  and  were  fed 
with  the  beetles  which  their  parents  gathered.  When  a  care- 
ful inspection  was  made  a  few  days  after,  not  a  beetle,  old  or 
young,  could  be  found ;  the  birds  had  swept  them  from  the 
field  and  saved  the  potatoes."  In  his  report  to  the  Michigan 
Horticultural  Society  in  1881,  Professor  Forbes  says  they  eat 
canker  worms,  which,  in  some  he  examined,  formed  sixty-six 
per  cent,  of  their  food ;  also  army  worms  and  other  caterpillars, 
wood-boring,  leaf  chafing  and  snout  beetles  and  hymenoptera. 
They  are  accused  of  destroying  the  opening  buds  upon  our 
trees  when  they  first  come  to  us,  but  if  this  be  true,  the  good 
record  they  make  throughout  the  summer  in  destroying  injuri- 
ous pests  greatly  exceeds  the  damage  they  do,  and  we  do 
well  if  we  protect  them. 


47 


INDIGO  BUNTING. 

(Passerina  cyanea). 

About  Life-size. 


tIFORO,   CHICAGO 


CHAPTER  XL. 


September  25 — October  1. 

THE  INDIGO  BUNTING. 

Order — Passeres  Suborder — Oscines 

Family — Fringillidse  Genus — Passerina 

Species — Passerina  cyanea 

Length — 4.75  to  5.75  ;  wing,  2.60  to  2.80;  tail,  2.20  to  2.50. 
Migration — North,  April ;  south,  September. 

"When  I  see 

High  on  the  tip-top  twig  of  a  tree, 
Something  blue  by  the  breezes  stirred, 
But  so  far  up  that  the  blue  is  blurred, 
So  far  up  that  no  green  leaf  flies 
'Twixt  its  blue  and  the  blue  of  the  skies, 
Then  I  know  ere  a  note  be  heard, 
That  'tis  naught  but  the  indigo  bird." 

Bunting,  formerly  was  the  name  given  to  several  birds 
of  the  order  passeres,  tribe  conirostres,  family  fringillidae,  and 
sub-family  emberizinse.  They  were  characterized  by  an  acute 
conical  bill,  with  a  straight  or  nearly  straight  culmen,  and  with 
lateral  margins ;  the  interior  of  the  upper  mandible  with  a 
palatic  knob ;  the  wings  moderate  and  somewhat  pointed ;  tarsi 
about  as  long  as  the  middle  toe,  and  scaled ;  hind  toe  robust 
and  longer  than  the  inner ;  claws  generally  curved.  Our  in- 
digo bunting,  known  scientifically  as  emberiza  cyanea,  was 
one  of  the  birds  by  Pennant  placed  under  that  arrangement, 
but  under  its  present  classification  it  is  known  scientifically  as 
passerina  syanea.  It  yet  continues  to  be  a  member  of  the 

225 


226  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

family  fringillidae.  Wilson  called  it  the  indigo  bird,  and  it  is  quite 
commonly  known  by  that  name. 

The  bill  of  the  adult  male  indigo  bunting  above  is  black 
and  below  whitish,  with  a  dark  stripe  along  the  gonys ;  iris  of 
the  eye  brown ;  head,  neck  and  throat  ultramarine  blue ;  as  his 
name  indicates,  his  general  color  is  an  indigo  or  cerulian  blue, 
changing  to  a  bluish  green  in  certain  lights ;  he  is  the  bluest 
of  our  blue  birds ;  wings  black  blue,  edged  with  light  blue  and 
becoming  brownish  toward  the  tips ;  tail  deep  blue,  tinged  with 
light  green ;  tarsus  slender,  without  feathers,  and  brownish ; 
toes  of  same  color,  long,  with  sharp  claws.  The  female  is 
smaller  than  the  male,  and  of  an  olive-brown  color  above, 
sometimes  tinged  with  greenish  gray  on  the  rump  and  upper 
tail  coverts ;  beneath  dull  whitish,  more  or  less  washed  or  tinged 
with  olive-buffy  on  the  chest.  Sides  and  flank,  wings  and  tail 
darkest,  sometimes  with  slight  tinge  of  blue  in  outer  webs  and  on 
the  shoulders. 

The  indigo  bunting  is  a  migrant  whose  range  extends  from 
Veragua  north  through  eastern  Mexico,  Central  America  and 
the  United  States,  east  of  the  Great  Plains  to  Maine,  Michigan, 
Minnesota,  Ontario  and  Nova  Scotia.  It  comes  north  during 
the  last  half  of  April  and  the  first  half  of  May,  spends  the  sum- 
mer with  us,  and  returns  to  the  South  the  latter  part  of  August 
and  in  September.  As  a  rule  the  males  precede  the  females  in 
the  migration  north.  They  breed  throughout  their  United  States 
range. 

Mating  begins  soon  after  the  arrival  of  the  females  and 
nest  building  commences  about  the  middle  of  May.  The  nest 
usually  is  built  near  the  ground,  in  a  low  bush  or  clump  of 
weeds.  A  pair  of  these  birds  nested  for  several  years  at  Som- 
erleaze.  One  year  I  found  the  nest  in  some  low  growing  lilac 
bushes  and  the  next  year  in  a  clump  of  weeds  nearby  where 
it  was  the  first  year.  The  nest  is  built  of  grass,  bark  and  leaves 
and  lined  with  fine  grass  and  hair,  and  is  a  very  neat  structure. 
It  is  made  by  the  female,  who  also  attends  to  the  duties  of  in- 
cubation and  the  feeding  of  the  young  while  in  the  nest.  In 
the  nest  are  laid  from  three  to  five  white  eggs,  tinged  with 
blue  and  occasionally  slightly  marked  with  reddish-brown 
dots.  Incubation  lasts  about  two  weeks  and  the  young  leave  the 


The  Indigo  Bunting  227 

nest  in  from  ten  to  twelve  days.  In  other  words,  nidification 
lasts  about  one  month.  During  this  time  the  male  may  be 
found  in  the  immediate  neighborhood  of  the  nest  singing  to  his 
mate — and  that  is  all  he  does.  Some  men  do  less. 

The  indigo  bunting  is  one  of  our  most  delightful  and  per- 
sistent singers.  He  is  in  song  when  he  comes  to  us  in  April, 

and, 

"At  noon  on  many  August  days 
Its  strain  its  solace  yields." 

In  her  Tangled  Stars,  Ethelwin  Whetherald  tells  us  most 
beautifully  of  his  song  and  how  he  sings  it. 

"When  I  hear 

A  song  like  a  bird  laugh,  blithe  and  clear 
As  though  of  some  airy  jest  he  had  heard 
The  last  and  most  delightful  word, 
A  laugh  as  fresh  in  August  haze 
As  it  was  in  the  full-voiced  April  days, 
Then  I  know  that  my  heart  is  stirred 
By  the  laugh-like  song  of  the  indigo  bird. 
Joy  in  the  branch  and  joy  in  the  sky, 
And  naught  between  but  the  breezes  high; 
And  naught  so  glad  on  the  breezes  heard 
As  the  gay  note  of  the  indigo  bird." 

A  favorite  place  for  the  one  at  Somerleaze  to  sing  is  from 
the  very  topmost  twig  of  a  great  Seckle  pear  tree  which  stands 
upon  the  edge  of  the  front  lawn,  and  where  I  can  see  him  with 
my  glass  from  the  veranda.  "Oh  so  sweet,  swee,  swee,  swee 
swee,  sweet,"  is  his  song,  and  from  a  hickory  tree  which  stands 
in  the  meadow  to  the  east  comes  back  in  response,  "swee,  swee, 
swee,  swee,  sweet." 

The  great  abundance  of  these  birds  is  readily  determined 
by  their  singing.  When  one  of  them  concludes  to  sing,  and 
this  is  frequently,  he  is  apt  to  commence  on  the  lower  branch 
of  some  tree  or  on  a  fence  stake,  and  as  he  sings,  gradually 
ascend  until  he  has  reached  the  topmost  twig  of  a  tree,  and  it 
is  then  that  he  seems  to  put  all  of  his  energy  into  his  song. 
The  higher  the  better  it  is  for  the  bird  that  sings.  It  was  just 
such  a  song  that  inspired  Mr.  Burroughs  to  write : 


228  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

"But  most  I  prize  past  summer's  prime, 
When  other's  throats  have  ceased  to  chime, 

The  faithful  tree  top  strain; 
No  brilliant  bursts  our  ears  enthrall — 

A  prelude  with  a  'dying  fall' 
That  soothes  the  summer  pain." 

Miss  Blanchan  is  right  when  she  says :  "Borders  of  woods, 
roadside  thickets,  and  even  garden  shrubbery  with  open  pas- 
ture lots  for  foraging  grounds  near  by,  are  favorite  haunts  of 
these  birds,  and  that  they  return  again  and  again  to  the  same 
favorite  spot."  At  Somerleaze  we  have  one  of  these  "roadside 
thickets" — one  that  we  commenced  many  years  ago  so  that 
we  might  have  the  wild  flowers  and  birds.  It  contains  about 
fifteen  acres  and  now  is  a  very  wild  place.  We  have  not  been 
disappointed,  for  it  is  a  veritable  home  for  the  wild  flowers  and 
birds.  On  the  north  side  of  it  is  a  public  highway  and  along 
it  the  indigo  birds  are  found  year  after  year.  I  will  not  be  dis- 
appointed in  finding  them  there  in  the  years  to  come,  nor  will 
my  grandchildren,  when  I  have  done  looking  for  and  expecting 
the  return  of  the  birds. 

It  will  be  well  with  us  if  we  protect  these  birds,  for  they 
are  most  useful  because  of  the  fact  .that  their  food  consists  of 
small  weed  seeds  and  insects.  Of  nineteen  examined  by  Pro- 
fessor King,  he  found  that  two  had  eaten  caterpillars ;  one,  two 
beetles;  one,  a  grasshopper;  one,  raspberries;  one,  elderber- 
ries; and  eighteen  of  them  had  eaten  the  seeds  of  various 
weeds.  Professor  Forbes  found  that  seventy-eight  per  cent, 
of  the  food  of  some  he  examined  was  canker  worms.  He  also 
notes  that  they  had  eaten  caterpillars,  spring  beetles,  vine 
chafers  and  snout  beetles. 


92 


GOLDFINCH. 

(Spinus  tristis.) 
%  Life-size. 


COPYRIGHT   1900,    BY 


CHAPTER  XLI. 


October  2— October  8. 

THE  AMERICAN  GOLDFINCH. 

Order — Passeres  Suborder — Oscines 

Family — Fringillidse  Genus — Spinus      / 

Species — Spinus  tristis. 

Length — 4.45  to  5.40;  wing,  2.60  to  2.90;  tail,  1.80  to  2.10. 

Resident. 

"The  goldfinch  on  a  thistle  head 
Stood  scattering  seedlets  as  he  fed." 

Finch,  a  name  formerly  given  to  many  birds  of  the  order 
passeres,  tribe  conirostres  and  family  fringillidae  included  a 
numerous  series  of  small  and  generally  brilliant  birds,  with 
short,  thick,  more  or  less  conical  bill,  without  emargination  at 
the  tip.  The  European  and  American  goldfinches  are  repre- 
sentative members  of  the  finch  family  as  thus  classified.  The 
European  species  is  much  larger  than  the  American  and  its 
colors  are  very  different.  It  has  black  and  golden  instead  of 
black  wings,  and  in  other  respects  the  bird  is  curiously  marked. 
It  has  been  introduced  into  various  localities  in  the  New  Eng- 
land States. 

As  its  name  indicates,  the  American  goldfinch  is  a  bird  of 
America ;  and  this  is  not  all,  for  it  is  a  bird  of  North  America, 
and  not  a  migrant.  Its  range  extends  throughout  the  United 
States  and  the  more  southern  British  provinces,  east  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains,  north  to  Manitoba,  Ontario,  Quebec  and 

229 


230  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

southern  Labrador.  It  is  also  known  as  the  wild  canary,  yel- 
low bird,  salad  bird,  lettuce  bird  and  thistle  bird.  A  singular 
fact  is  that  these  birds,  although  they  are  here  throughout  the 
year,  and  the  male  has  on  his  courting  suit  by  the  first  of  May, 
yet,  as  a  rule,  they  do  not  mate  until  about  the  first  of  July. 
Until  then  they  may  be  seen  flying  about  in  small  flocks  and 
having  a  real  good  time. 

The  male  and  female  are  quite  unlike  in  appearance.  The 
bill  of  the  adult  male  is  moderate  and  of  a  reddish  cinnamon 
color,  tipped  with  black;  iris  of  the  eye  brown;  forepart  and 
crown  of  the  head  and  lobes  are  black ;  wings  black,  except  the 
lesser  coverts,  which,  with  a  band  across  the  greater  ones  and 
the  ends  of  the  tertiaries  and  secondaries,  are  white ;  the  cov- 
erts and  inner  margin  of  the  tail  white,  with  the  remainder  of 
the  tail  feathers  black ;  general  summer  plumage  above  and  be- 
low a  pure  lemon  or  canary  yellow;  legs  of  a  reddish  cinna- 
mon color.  In  the  winter  his  color  is  similar  to  that  of  the 
female,  except  his  wings  are  of  a  deeper  black  color,  with  whit- 
ish markings  more  conspicuous.  The  adult  female  above  is  a 
yellowish-gray;  under  parts  dull  grayish-white,  more  or  less 
tinged  with  yellow ;  no  black  in  the  forehead ;  wings  and  tail 
much  like  that  of  the  male.  She  looks  quite  like  a  member  of 
the  sparrow  family. 

The  best  time  for  insectivorous  birds  to  have  their  young 
is  when  there  is  a  good  supply  of  insects  and  their  larvae  to 
feed  them.  This  probably  accounts  for  the  fact  that  this  class 
of  birds,  as  a  rule,  attend  to  the  rearing  of  their  young  in  the 
spring  and  early  summer.  It  has  been  suggested,  and  with 
some  plausibility,  that  the  same  reasoning  may  be  applied  in 
accounting  for  the  fact  that  the  American  goldfinch  does  not 
commence  nesting  until  the  first  of  July.  Being  members  of 
the  finch  or  sparrow  family,  their  food  consists  mainly,  not  of 
insects,  but  of  seeds,  and  it  is  not  until  in  July  that  their  favor- 
ite food  such  as  the  lettuce  and  thistle  seed  is  ripe.  It  is, 

"Just  as  the  seeds  are  fit  to  fly 

A  yellow  bird  drops  deftly  down, 
A  living  nugget  from  the  sky, 

And  lights  upon  the  thistle  down." 


The  American  Goldfinch  231 

When  they  "light  upon  the  thistle  down,"  as  is  shown  in 
the  ilhistration,  they  may  have  either  of  two  objects  in  view, 
namely,  the  getting  of  the  seed  for  food  or  the  thistle  down 
for  the  building  of  their  nest.  The  nest  is  usually  built  near 
the  ground  and  placed  in  the  crotch  of  a  coarse  growing  weed, 
or  in  a  bush  or  low  growing  tree.  The  outer  or  cup  part  of 
it  is  built  compactly  of  grass,  moss  or  vegetable  matter,  well 
woven  together  and  lined  with  thistle  or  other  plant  down. 
The  female  builds  the  nest  and  it  takes  her  about  five  days 
to  build  it.  The  male  attends  her  while  she  does  the  work  and 
cheers  her  with  his  song.  In  the  nest,  when  completed,  is  laid 
from  four  to  six  white  eggs,  tinged  with  blue.  Incubation  is 
attended  to  by  the  female,  during  which  time  the  male  is  very 
attentive  to  and  feeds  her.  In  his  picture  of  the  gold  finch 
Ernest  Seton  Thompson  portrays  the  male  feeding  the  female 
and  entitles  it  "Goldfinch  Gallantry."  Incubation  lasts  about 
fifteen  days,  and  in  another  fifteen  days  the  young  are  strong 
enough  to  leave  the  nest.  Both  parents  work  industriously  in 
feeding  the  young. 

The  flight  of  the  goldfinch  is  wavy,  undulating  and  grace- 
ful, and  its  song  has  the  same  characteristics,  and  most  gen- 
erally is  sung  while  the  bird  is  in  flight,  and  "per-chic-o-ree, 
per-chic-o-ree"  is  a  fair  interpretation  of  it. 

"Bit  of  sunshine  taken  wings 
Or  a  spray  of  golden-rod? 
On  thistle  top  he  sways  and  sings, 
Or  flung  high  to  the  sun,  he  sings — 
'Perdita — Perdita — Perdita — 
'Dita — Sweet,  Sweet — '  " 

"At  your  approach,"  as  Miss  Blanchan  says,  "the  busy 
company  rises  on  the  wing,  and  with  a  peculiar,  wavy  flight, 
rises  and  falls  through  the  air,  marking  each  undulation  with 
a  cluster  of  notes,  sweet  and  clear,  that  come  floating  down- 
ward from  the  blue  ether,  where  the  birds  seem  to  bound  along 
exultant  in  their  motion  and  song."  It  is  by  their  flight  that 
they  are  most  easily  distinguished  from  the  sparrows  in  the 
winter  season. 

I  have  known  these  birds  from  my  earliest  childhood.  I 
remember  well  how  they  came  to  our  garden  and  fed  upon  the 


232  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

lettuce  and  beet  seed,  and  how  this  annoyd  mother,  who  was 
in  the  habit  of  growing  her  own  seeds.  But  that  which  fixes 
them  most  surely  and  certainly  in  my  memory  was  the  seeing 
of  them  in  the  clearing.  I  am  glad  that  I  have  come  through 
and  witnessed  every  phase  of  life  from  that  of  the  pioneer  and 
frontiersman  to  the  era  of  large  cities,  and  witnessed  all  that 
that  means  in  the  latter  days  of  American  progress  and  civiliz- 
ation. The  opening  up  of  a  country  is  a  serious  matter.  It 
means  hard  toil  and  much  deprivation,  and  yet  there  is  a  fas- 
cination about  it.  One  feature  connected  with  it  was  the  "clear- 
ing," as  it  was  called,  of  the  land,  which  was  then  covered  with 
a  dense  and  heavy  forest.  This  we  did  by  first  deadening  the 
timber  by  cutting  through  the  bark  in  a  line  entirely  around 
the  trees.  After  a  year  or  two  the  trees  would  begin  to  decay 
and  the  limbs  fall  off,  and  the  land  would  grow  up  in  polk 
weeds,  thistle  and  other  seed-bearing  weeds.  This  made  an 
ideal  place  for  the  goldfinches.  It  was  in  such  a  clearing,  one 
that  I  helped  to  make,  that  I  saw  the  goldfinches  most  abund- 
antly. 

In  his  Birds  of  Indiana,  Mr.  Butler  says  of  the  goldfinches 
that  "they  are  the  seed  destroyers  par  excellence.  Sometimes 
it  is  something  desirable,  like  the  seed  of  lettuce,  turnip  and 
hemp,  but  more  often  it  is  the  baneful  dandelion,  burdock,  mul- 
len  and  other  pernicious  weeds.  Sunflower  seed  is  the  favorite 
food.  In  winter  the  seeds  of  grasses,  rag  weeds,  horse  weeds 
and  occasionally  sycamore  are  eaten."  At  Buzzard's  Roost 
we  grow  quite  a  quantity  of  sunflowers,  and  it  is  a  most  inter- 
esting sight  to  see  the  goldfinches  coming  from  every  direc- 
tion to  feed  upon  them ;  it  is  a  constant  coming  and  going. 
They  have  also  been  reported  as  being  destroyers  of  plant  lice 
and  the  Hessian  fly,  Rocky  Mountain  locust  and  other  insects. 


FROM  COL.  CHI.   ACAD.  SCIENCES 

122 


RED-EYED   VIREO. 

(Vireo  olivaceus). 

fa  Life-size. 


COPYRIGHT 


MUMFOflO,  CHICAGO 


CHAPTER  XLII. 


October  9 — October  15. 

THE  RED-EYED  VIREO. 

Order — Passeres  Suborder — Oscines 

Family — Vireonidae  Genus — Vireo 

Subgenus — Vireosylva  Species — Vireo  olivaceus 

Length— 5.50  to  6.50;  wing,  3.10  to  3.80;  tail,  3.15  to  3.30. 
Migration — North,  April ;  south,  October. 

"Apostle  of  the  grove.    Thy  song  divine 
The  God  of  Nature  gave  thee  note  by  note, 

To  gladder,  fuller  make  the  message  thine, 
Rippling  in  beauty  from  thy  dainty  throat. 

'You  see  it.     You  know  it.     Do  you  hear  me? 
Do  you  believe  it?' 

Would  that  apostleship  so  sweet  were  mine?" 

According  to  Apgar,  the  family  Vireonidae,  having  in  it 
about  fifty  species,  is  composed  exclusively  of  American,  small, 
olive-backed  birds  of  woods  and  thickets,  with  narrow,  stout, 
notched  and  hooked  bills.  Our  largest  species  is  about  the 
size  of  the  English  sparrow.  The  vieros  are  insect-eating  birds, 
but,  unlike  many  warblers  and  all  the  true  flycatchers,  they 
gather  their  prey  while  perching.  With  rather  slow  move- 
ments they  patiently  search  over  and  under  leaves,  on  twigs 
and  bark,  for  spiders,  beetles,  caterpillars,  etc.  All  our  species 
are  good  singers,  and  some  are  noted  for  their  vocal  powers. 
They  build  beautiful  basket-like  nests,  which  are  suspended  from 
forked  twigs,  sometimes  near  the  ground  and  sometimes  from 
the  highest  parts  of  forest  trees.  They  are  usually  to  be  found 
on  trees  or  bushes,  very  rarely  on  the  ground. 

233 


234  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

The  red-eyed  vireo  is  regarded  as  the  best  type  of  its  fam- 
ily. Its  color  is  indicated  by  its  scientific  name,  for  the  word 
"vireo"  means  green  and  the  word  "olivaceus"  an  olive-green. 
In  appearance  the  sexes  are  alike.  The  bill  is  short,  strong  and 
nearly  straight,  notched  and  hooked  at  the  tip,  greenish  above 
and  yellowish  below;  crown  of  head  ashy,  bordered  on  each 
side  by  a  dusky  line  with  a  white  strip  below  it,  and  over 
the  eye;  iris  of  the  eye  red,  and  it  is  this  that  gives  to  it  its 
distinguishing  name ;  upper  parts  of  the  body  and  tail  are 
of  a  bright  olive  green ;  below  nearly  pure  white,  the  under- 
tail  coverts  having  a  sulphur  tinge ;  toes  moderate  in  size,  the 
lateral  ones  partly  united  to  the  middle  at  the  base,  and  this 
enables  it  to  hold  its  insect  food  much  as  a  shrike  does. 

It  is  a  migrant  whose  range  extends  from  Columbia  and 
Trinidad  north  throughout  eastern  North  America  to  Lab- 
rador, the  Mackenzie  Valley  and  British  Columbia.  Cooke  in 
his  Migration  of  Birds,  says :  "The  red-eyed  vireo,  the  com- 
monest and  most  known  of  the  tuneful  family,  winters  in  Cen- 
tral America,  from  Guatemala.  The  advent  of  the  species  in 
spring  at  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  and  its  even-paced  pas- 
sage at  twenty  miles  per  day  for  six  weeks  to  the  head  of  the 
waters  of  the  river  are  well  attested  by  numerous  records.  But 
just  about  the  time  northern  Nebraska  is  reached,  and  before 
they  have  appeared  in  any  intervening  country,  red-eyed  vi- 
reos  are  noted  in  British  Columbia,  one  thousand  miles  to  the 
northwest.  Is  the  presence  of  the  red-eyed  vireo  in  British 
Columbia  to  be  explained  by  the  theory  that  it  suddenly  flies 
one  thousand  miles  in  a  single  night?"  They  come  north  the 
last  half  of  April  and  return  south  the  first  of  October. 
They  breed  from  the  Gulf  States  north  throughout  their  north- 
ern range. 

They  mate  after  they  come  north  and  late  in  May  or  by 
the  first  of  June  their  nests  may  be  found.  The  nest  is  a  beau- 
tiful piece  of  bird  structure.  In  my  collection  of  nests  I  have 
one  which  I  obtained  at  Buzzard's  Roost  January  1,  1905.  It 
is  pensile  and  cup-shaped  in  form  and  laced  to  the  forked 
limbs  of  a  bush.  The  outside  of  it  has  woven  into  it  a  white 
material  which  I  think  has  been  taken  from  a  spider's  web  or 
hornet's  nest.  It  is  surprising  how  neatly  and  substantially  it 


The  Red-Eyed  Vireo  235 

is  built  and  how  firmly  it  is  attached  to  the  limbs.  The  prin- 
cipal part  of  the  outside  of  it  consists  of  grass  blades  and  the 
fiber  of  plants,  and  the  inside  is  lined  with  very  fine  straws. 
No  hair  has  been  used  in  its  construction.  The  outside  parts 
seem  to  be  glued  together.  I  have  several  of  these  nests  and 
they  all  seem  to  be  fastened  to  the  twigs  with  the  same  ma- 
terial, and  it  very  much  resembles  the  very  fine  fiber  of  the 
flax  plant.  It  is  very  strong.  The  nest  is  usually  found  from 
four  to  thirty  feet  from  the  ground  in  a  strong  growing  weed 
or  in  a  bush.  Often  they  are  built  in  the  shade  trees  about 
our  homes  in  the  city.  In  1903  one  built  its  nest  so  close  to 
the  front  steps  leading  up  to  my  neighbor's  residence  that  one 
could  have  easily  put  his  hands  into  it,  and  I  doubt  if  he  ever 
knew  that  it  was  there.  Three  to  five  eggs  with  a  few  dark 
specks  on  them  constitute  a  clutch.  I  have  no  records  relat- 
ing to  the  incubation  of  these  birds  and  I  find  nothing  in  the 
books  about  it. 

The  vireos  are  very  musical — even  more  so  than  the 
warblers — and  of  them  the  red-eyed  is  the  most  musical.  At 
Buzzard's  Roost  we  have  large  numbers  of  them  and  they 
make  the  woods  resonant  with  their  songs.  It  is  by  their  song 
that  I  know  them  best,  for  they  are  difficult  birds  to  get  sight 
of.  Their  song  has  had  many  interpretations.  Mr.  Wilson 
Flagg,  who  calls  the  red-eyed  vireo  "The  Preacher,"  says: 
"This  style  of  preaching  is  not  declamation.  Though  constant- 
ly talking,  he  takes  the  part  of  the  deliberate  orator,  who  ex- 
plains his  subject  in  a  few  words,  and  then  makes  a  pause  for 
his  hearers  to  reflect  upon  it.  We  might  suppose  him  to  be 
repeating  moderately,  with  a  pause  between  each  sentence 
'you  see  it — you  know  it — do  you  hear  me — do  you  believe  it?' 
All  these  strains  are  delivered  with  a  rising  reflection  at  the 
close,  and  with  a  pause,  as  if  waiting  for  an  answer."  Mr. 
Chapman  and  Miss  Blanchan  concur  with  Mr.  Flagg  in  his  in- 
terpretation of  the  song  and  the  manner  of  its  uttering.  Mrs. 
Mabel  Osgood  Wright  says  he  is  "The  Talker,"  and  that  "this 
is  what  he  says,  stopping  between  every  sentence:  'I  know  it 
— I  made  it — mustn't  touch  it — shouldn't  like  it — if  you  do  it 
— I'll  know  it — you'll  rue  it.'  "  Miss  Merriman  says :  "His 
song  is  a  monotonous  but  cheerful  monologue  made  up  of 


236  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

short,  broken  sentences  in  triplets,  given  as  he  hunts  over  the 
branches  for  food.  'Where's  a  worm?  Where's  a  caterpillar? 
Where's  a  worm?'  he  queries  as  he  goes,  answering  his  own 
question  very  comfortably  to  himself."  Mr.  Butler  says,  "It 
seems  to  say,  'See  it?  See  it?  Who  are  you?  Cheer  up.' ':  Mr. 
Wm.  L.  Bailey  says  :  "Listen  to  the  persuasive  tones  of  the  red- 
eyed  vireo — soft  and  sweet  and  full  of  eloquence,  bidding  us 
cast  aside  our  griefs  and  be  as  happy  as  he."  Mr.  H.  D.  Mi- 
nott  says :  "The  red-eyed  vireos  have  also  a  chip,  a  chatter  like 
a  miniature  of  the  oriole's  scold  (and  to  be  heard  in  the  season 
of  courtship),  and  a  particularly  characteristic  querulous  note, 
which,  like  others,  can  not  be  described  accurately;  hence  the 
advantage  of  studying  birds  through  nature^  and  not  through 
books."  Elsewhere  I  have  spoken  of  the  difficulty  in  inter- 
preting the  songs  of  our  birds.  Mr.  Minott  is  right  when  he 
says :  "Hence  the  advantage  of  studying  birds  through  Nature, 
and  not  through  books." 

The  warblers  and  vireos  are  among  our  most  useful  birds. 
Perhaps  the  vireos  are  the  most  useful.  They  are  just  as  busy 
workers  as  the  warblers,  and  instead  of  only  making  us  a  visit 
in  the  spring  and  autumn,  as  most  of  the  warblers  do,  they  re- 
main with  us  throughout  the  summer.  Hot  summer  days  seem 
to  have  no  terrors  for  them.  From  early  dawn  to  late  dusk 
they  untiringly  and  unceasingly  are  at  the  work  of  taking  the 
eggs  and  larvae  of  harmful  insects  from  the  leaves  of  our 
trees.  As  one  author  has  well  said,  "They  are,  first  and  fore- 
most, caterpillar  eaters,  but  they  also  do  great  good  by  their 
fondness  for  bugs  and  weevils,  May  beetles,  inch  worms  and 
leaf-eating  beetles."  Professor  King  examined  the  stomachs 
of  forty-nine  of  these  birds  and  found  that  their  principal  food 
consisted  of  fifty-six  larvae,  principally  caterpillars ;  thirty-two 
insects'  eggs,  sixty-seven  chinch  bugs,  thirty-two  beetles  and 
six  grasshoppers,  and  that  fourteen  of  them  had  eaten  vege- 
table food.  Dr.  A.  K.  Fisher  of  the  Department  of  Agricul- 
ture says  that  they  are  extremely  fond  of  the  aromatic  fruits 
of  the  benzoin  bush,  sassafras  and  magnolias,  and  that  when 
they  gather  together  along  the  Gulf  Coast  in  the  autumn  they 
feed  exclusively  on  the  berries  of  the  magnolia  and  become  ex- 
ceedingly fat. 


CHAPTER  XLIII. 


October  16— October  22. 

THE  MOURNING  DOVE. 

Order — Columbse  Family — Columbidae 

Genus — Zenaidura  Species — Zenaidura  macroura 

Length — 11.00  to  13.00;  wing,  5.70  to  6.10;  tail,  5.70  to  6.50. 
Migration — North,  March  ;  south,  November. 

"Oh,  when   'tis  summer  weather, 
And  the  yellow  bee  with  fairy  sound, 
The  waters  clea'r  is  humming  round, 
And  the  cuckoo  sings  unseen, 
And  the  leaves  are  waving  green — 

Oh,  then  'tis  sweet, 

In   some  retreat, 
To   hear   the  murmuring   dove, 
With  those  on  earth  alone  we  love, 
And  to  wind  through  the  greenwood  together." 

The  family  Columbidse,  composed  of  the  pigeons  and 
doves,  has  in  it  about  three  hundred  species,  and  members  of 
it  may  be  found  in  all  parts  of  the  world.  Twelve  of  these 
are  found  in  North  America,  but  only  four  of  them  are  found 
north  of  southern  Texas  and  southern  Florida.  Most  of  them 
are  found  in  the  warmer  regions  of  the  earth.  Some  of  them 
are  strictly  arboreal  and  others  prefer  fields  and  clearings. 
They  are  short-billed,  small,  round-headed,  plump-bodied, 

237 


238  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

long-legged,  smooth-plumaged  birds,  with  a  peculiar,  more  or 
less  irredescent,  grayish  and  brownish  coloration.  When 
drinking  they  do  not  raise  the  head  as  other  birds  do  to  swal- 
low, but  keep  the  bill  immersed  until  the  draught  is  finished. 
The  young  are  born  naked  and  fed  by  regurgitation. 

The  bill  of  the  adult  male  mourning  dove  is  black ;  eye 
of  a  glossy  blackness,  surrounded  with  a  pale  greenish  blue 
skin ;  forehead  and  sides  of  neck  a  pale  brown  vinaceous ; 
crown,  upper  part  of  the  neck  and  wings  a  fine  silky  slate  blue ; 
under  the  ears  a  spot  of  deep  black,  immediately  below  which 
the  plumage  reflects  the  most  vivid  tints  of  green,  gold  and 
crimson ;  chin  pale  yellow  ochre ;  back,  scapulars  and  lesser 
wing  coverts  ashy  brown ;  tertials  spotted  with  black ;  pri- 
maries edged  and  tipped  with  white;  tail  long,  cuneiform  and 
consists  of  fourteen  feathers;  the  four  exterior  ones  on  each 
side  are  marked  with  black  about  an  inch  from  the  tips,  and 
white  thence  to  the  extremity ;  the  next  has  less  of  white  at 
the  tip;  these  gradually  lengthen  to  the  four  middle  ones, 
which  are  wholly  dark  slate ;  all  of  them  taper  toward  the 
points,  the  two  middle  ones  most  so ;  .belly  and  vent  whitish ; 
legs  and  feet  coral  red,  seamed  with  white.  The  adult  female 
is  about  an  inch  shorter  than  the  male  and  of  a  less  brilliant 
color;  she  also  lacks  the  rich  silky  blue  on  the  crown  of  the 
male  and  much  of  the  splendor  of  his  neck. 

The  mourning  dove  in  some  places  is  a  permanent  resi- 
dent and  in  others  a  migrant.  Its  range  extends  from  the 
West  Indies  and  Mexico  north  to  southern  Maine,  Quebec,  On- 
tario, Manitoba  and  British  Columbia.  It  winters  from  south- 
ern New  York,  southern  Illinois,  Kansas  and  southern  Califor- 
nia southward.  Those  that  migrate  to  the  Middle  West  come 
north  in  March  and  return  south  in  November.  In  flight  the 
bird  makes  a  whistling  noise  with  its  wings,  and  by  Mr.  Ern- 
est Seton  Thompson  it  is  called  "Whistling  Wings."  When 
in  repose  the  wings  and  tail  of  the  mourning  dove  and  the  yel- 
low-billed cuckoo,  which  it  much  resembles,  are  held  in  the  re- 
verse position — the  wings  of  the  first  overlapping  the  drooping 
tail,  and  of  the  second  extending  under  an  uplifted  tail. 

They  mate  early  and  nesting  commences  about  the  middle 
of  April.  As  a  rule  the  nest  is  built  in  various  kinds  of  bushes, 


The  Mourning  Dove  239 

like  that  in  the  illustration,  at  a  height  of  five  to  twenty  feet 
from  the  ground.  One  that  I  observed  at  Somerleaze  was 
built  on  an  outspreading  limb  of  a  young  elm,  so  low  that  I 
could  easily  look  into  it.  Sometimes  the  nest  is  built  in  other 
places,  they  having  been  found  on  the  ground,  stumps,  rocks 
and  fence  rails.  The  nest,  like  that  of  the  cuckoo,  is  built  of 
a  few  sticks  and  straws  and  is  a  very  shabby  affair.  The 
wonder  is  that  the  eggs  and  the  young  of  the  birds  remain 
upon  it.  Two  pure  white  eggs  constitute  a  clutch.  Incuba- 
tion lasts  about  two  weeks  and  both  the  male  and  female  take 
part  in  it.  The  young  grow  very  rapidly  and  leave  the  nest 
early.  Both  parents  are  attentive  to  their  young,  even  after 
they  have  left  the  nest.  The  nestlings  are  fed  upon  regurgi- 
tated food. 

Baskett  in  his  Story  of  the  Birds  says,  "The  pigeon  group 
is  very  peculiar,  even  among  this  kind  of  birds,  in  that  the 
young  inserts  its  beak  into  that  of  the  parent  and  finds  there 
at  first  not  half-digested  food,  but  a  curdlike  secretion,  or, 
rather  more  accurately,  the  thickened  and  'peeled  up'  lining 
of  the  parent's  crop.  Until  the  young  are  about  nine  days  old 
this  occurs  in  both  parents,  as  an  unexplained  physiological 
result  of  incubation.  Toward  the  last  of  this  period  the  curd 
is  mixed  largely  with  the  food  of  the  parent,  and  gradually 
ceases  to  form  till  the  youngster  finds  for  his  dinner  only 
bread  without  cheese." 

The  food  of  the  adult  bird  consists  of  different  kinds  of 
grain,  weed  seeds,  beechnuts,  small  acorns,  worms  and  insects. 
Professor  King  took  four  thousand  and  sixteen  seeds  of  pigeon 
grass  from  the  stomach  of  a  single  bird,  while  from  another 
seven  thousand  five  hundred  seeds  of  oxalis  were  taken.  They 
like  a  larger  variety  of  weed  seed  than  any  other  bird,  and 
feed  on  the  seeds  of  the  rag  weed,  pigeon  grass,  smart  weed 
bind  weed  and  several  other  weeds.  They  are  par  excellence 
weed  seed  destroyers.  After  the  nesting  season  is  over  they 
gather  in  flocks  of  varying  size  and  frequent  grain  and  corn 
fields.  During  the  day  they  visit  the  nearest  supply  of  fine 
gravel,  which  they  eat  in  large  quantities  as  an  aid  to  diges- 
tion. At  this  time  it  is  interesting  to  watch  them.  Their 
color  is  so  much  like  that  of  the  dust  of  the  roadway  that  one 


240  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

gets  close  to  them  before  seeing  them.  They  do  not  seem  to 
be  frightened,  but  will  fly  up  and  a  little  ahead  to  keep  out  of 
the  way,  and  this  they  will  do  for  some  distance,  and  then 
divide  and  fly  out  in  a  circle  and  return  to  where  they  first 
started.  If  I  were  going  to  give  the  mourning  dove  another 
name,  I  would  call  it  the  "Road  Flyer." 

The  last  week  of  July  and  the  first  two  weeks  of  August, 
1882,  I  spent  in  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  traveled  over  seven 
different  ranges  in  a  two-horse  wagon  with  a  camping  outfit. 
The  outing  was  a  most  pleasant  and  instructive  one.  As  we 
ascended  the  mountains  the  vegetation,  except  the  pretty  Al- 
pine flowers,  became  exceedingly  scanty,  and  of  quadrupeds, 
birds  and  insects,  scarcely  one  could  be  seen.  Excepting  one 
grouse  and  jay  the  only  birds  we  saw  were  mourning  doves, 
and  true  to  their  habit  of  road  flying,  we  saw  them  in  small 
flocks  in  the  highway  before  us.  The  last  flock  of  them  that 
we  saw  was  the  day  before  we  reached  the  snow  limit.  That 
night  we  camped  on  a  beautiful  plateau  and  pitched  our  tent 
on  a  plat  of  wild  strawberries  from  which  we  picked  ripe  fruit. 
The  next  morning  the  water  in  our  camping  utensils  was  cov- 
ered with  ice.  That  day  I  sat  beside  the  ever-existing  snow 
and  made  a  snowball  with  my  right  hand  and  gathered  Alpine 
flowers  with  my  left. 

Of  the  dove  we  have  a  very  early  account,  for  it  is  re- 
corded in  Genesis  that  Noah  "sent  forth  a  dove  from  him  to 
see  if  the  waters  were  abated  from  the  face  of  the  ground. 
But  the  dove  found  no  rest  for  the  sole  of  her  foot,  and  she  re- 
turned unto  him  in  the  ark.  And  again  he  sent  forth  the  dove 
out  of  the  ark.  And  the  dove  came  unto  him  in  the  evening, 
and,  lo,  in  her  mouth  was  an  olive  leaf,  plucked  off."  It  has 
been  well  said  that  the  dove  is  the  bird  of  gentleness,  quiet, 
singing  in  low,  calm  notes  in  the  morning  and  eveningtide.  It 
is  the  bird  of  innocence.  It  avoids  every  scene  and  place  where 
harm  is  possible ;  it  disturbs  no  one ;  brings  loss  or  hurt  to  no 
one ;  costs  no  one  anything.  It  lives  in  desert  places  and  leafy 
shades  in  seclusion,  giving  everyone  who  sees  it  the  idea  of 
simple  unobtrusive  innocence  that  pleases  by  its  gentleness.  It 
is  the  bird  of  melancholy.  There  is  a  vague  sadness  in  its  low 
note — "Coo-o-o,  ah-coo-o-o,  o-o."  The  spirit  of  gentleness, 


The  Mourning  Dove  241 

melancholy,  innocence,  love,  holiness  and  hope  is  symbolized 
by  the  dove,  and  hence  in  the  shape  of  a  dove  the  Grace  of  God 
lighted  on  the  head  of  the  Messiah  in  the  holy  stream  of  Jor- 
dan. Yet  in  some  States  it  is  called  sport  to  kill  these  birds, 
and  by  law  they  are  placed  on  the  list  of  game  birds  and  a 
season  fixed  in  which  sportsmen,  as  they  are  called,  may  go 
abroad  throughout  the  land  and  exterminate  them.  Shame  on 
such  laws  and  the  men  who  enact  them ! 


249 


CEDAR  WAXWING. 

(Ampelis  cedrorum). 

?  Life-size. 


MFORD,   CHICAGO 


CHAPTER  XLIV. 


October  23— October   29. 

THE  CEDAR  WAXWING. 

Order — Passeres  Suborder — Oscines 

Family — Ampelidae  Subfamily — Ampelinae 

Genus — Ampelis  Species — Ampelis  cedrorum 

Length — 6.50  to  7.50 ;  wing,  3.60  to  3.90 ;  tail,  2.30  to  2.60. 
Wanderers  without  any  fixed  periods  of  migration. 

Among  the  early  ornithologists  there  was  a  diversity  of 
opinion  where,  in  classifying  the  waxwings,  they  should  be 
placed.  Linnaeus  placed  them  in  the  family  laniidae  composed  of 
the  shrikes ;  Brisson  in  the  family  turdidae  composed  of  the 
thrushes,  etc. ;  and  Illiger  in  the  family  corvidae,  composed  of 
the  crows,  jays,  etc.  Linnaeus  afterward  restored  them  to  the 
family  ampelidae,  and  this  is  now  recognized  as  their  proper 
classification.  It  seems  strange  that  there  should  have  been 
such  a  diversity  of  opinion  and  that  they  should  have  been 
placed  in  such  various  and  unlike  families.  For  instance,  the 
family  laniidae  is  a  family  of  carnivorous  birds  and  the  wax- 
wings  are  frugivorous ;  the  family  turdidae  is  a  family  of  sing- 
ing birds,  and  the  waxwings  have  not  the  gift  of  song;  the 
family  corvidae  are  very  noisy  birds  and  are  omniverous  feed- 
ers, while  on  the  other  hand  the  waxwings  are  ''the  silent 
ones,"  and  their  principal  food  consists  of  fruit.  The  family 
ampelidae  is  one  of  the  smallest,  having  in  it  but  two  species, 
namely  the  Bohemian  and  cedar  waxwings.  Some  of  the  lat- 

243 


244  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

ter  systemists  also  include  in  it  the  phainopepla,  a  bird  of 
Mexico  and  southern  Texas.  Like  the  shrikes,  the  first-named 
waxwing  is  a  bird  of  the  far  north  and  the  other  of  the  south. 
Both  have  the  same  general  appearance  and  characteristics. 
Of  the  two,  the  Bohemian  is  the  largest. 

The  general  color  of  the  cedar  waxwing  is  a  reddish  olive, 
changing  to  cinnamon  anteriorly,  ashy  behind  and  yellowish 
below.  The  bill  is  short,  broad  at  the  base,  compressed,  notched 
at  the  tip  and  black.  Forehead,  chin  and  stripe  through  the 
eye  black,  the  latter  bordered  above  with  white ;  base  of  fore- 
head also  white.  Iris  of  the  eye  hazel.  The  wings  are  broad 
and  pointed,  the  secondaries  having  red  wax-like  tips  from 
which  it  gets  its  name  of  wax-wing.  Tail  blackish  toward  the 
end  and  tipped  with  yellow,  and  sometimes  with  red  wax-like 
tips.  Tarsus  short,  toes  long  and  both  black ;  claws  curved 
and  sharp.  The  entire  plumage  is  of  a  remarkably  fine  and 
silky  texture  and  lies  extremely  close  to  the  body.  The  male 
and  female  are  alike  in  appearance  and  both  are  crested. 

The  cedar  waxwing  is  variously  called  the  cedar  bird, 
cherry  bird,  Quaker  bird  and  Recollet.  It  gets  its  distinguish- 
ing names  cedar  and  cherry  from  its  fondness  for  the  fruit  of 
the  cedar  and  cherry  trees ;  Quaker  bird,  because  of  its  modest 
colors  and  quiet  and  dignified  manners ;  and  Recollet  from 
the  color  of  its  crest,  which  resembles  the  hood  of  a  French 
religious  order  of  that  name.  It  is  an  irregular  migrant  whose 
range  extends  from  Honduras  and  Jamaica  north  to  Labrador. 
The  average  dates  of  its  migrations  do  not  seem  to  be  well 
established.  Except  when  nesting  they  are  gregarious  and 
rove  over  the  country  in  flocks,  some  of  which  are  very  large. 

One  of  the  most  beautiful  sights  that  I  have  seen  was  a 
flock  of  about  five  hundred  of  these  birds  in  the  latter  part  of 
February,  feeding  on  hackberries  on  North  Meridian  Street 
in  the  City  of  Indianapolis.  There  was  an  abundance  of  fruit 
upon  the  large  trees  in  that  locality  and  the  flock  lingered  for 
several  days  feeding  upon  it.  This  gave  me  a  good  opportu- 
nity to  observe  them.  I  had  read  in  the  books  about  their 
polite  way  of  passing  food  from  one  to  another  and  of  their 
billing  and  kissing  each  other,  but  had  thought  that  what  had 
been  written  were  largely  fancy  sketches  based  upon  imagin- 


The  Cedar  Waxwing  245 

ary  observations.  In  this  I  was  mistaken,  for  I  saw  them  bill- 
ing or  kissing  each  other,  and  it  was  a  most  interesting  sight. 
On  another  occasion,  during  cherry  time,  I  looked  out  of  the 
window  from  my  study  and  saw  a  small  flock  of  them  feeding 
upon  my  neighbor's  May  cherries,  and  saw  some  of  them  pass- 
ing cherries  to  others.  On  this  occasion  I  heard  the  peculiar 
lisping  notes  of  "ze,  ze,  ze"  of  these  birds,  and  we  are  told 
that  it  is  the  only  noise  they  make  in  song  or  otherwise.  As 
Ernest  Thompson  Seton  says,  they  are  "the  silent  ones." 

The  American  goldfinch  and  cedar  waxwing  are  alike  in 
that  they  roam  about  the  country  in  flocks  when  the  other  birds 
are  nesting,  and,  as  a  rule,  do  not  commence  nest  building  until 
July  and  August.  Until  the  summer  of  1906  I  had  never  seen 
the  nest  6f  a  cedar  waxwing.  Sunday  morning,  August  5th,  I 
noticed  that  a  goldfinch  had  commenced  building  her  nest  on 
the  lower  limb  of  an  elm  tree  on  the  front  lawn  at  Somerleaze. 
She  worked  very  industriously  at  it  until  nine  o'clock,  when 
I  went  down  to  see  what  progress  she  was  making.  I  found 
she  had  gathered  quite  a  quantity  of  material  and  was  in  the 
act  of  fitting  it  about  her  body.  My  presence  alarmed  her  and 
she  flew  away.  I  came  back  to  the  veranda  and  resumed  my 
watch.  Presently  a  cedar  waxwing,  the  first  one  that  I  had 
seen  for  three  years,  alighted  on  the  lower  end  of  the  limb 
upon  which  the  goldfinch  had  commenced  her  nest.  In  look- 
ing about  she  discovered  the  goldfinch's  material,  hopped  up 
to  it,  took  a  bill  full  of  it  and  flew  away  to  the  east.  Soon  she 
came  back  and  took  another  bill  full,  and  this  she  continued 
to  do  until  she  had  taken  all  of  the  goldfinch's  material.  I 
followed  her  and  found  that  she  was  using  the  goldfinch's  ma- 
terial in  building  her  own  nest  on  another  elm  tree  on  the  east 
lawn,  about  twenty  feet  from  the  ground. 

In  watching  the  waxwing  on  her  nest  I  was  reminded  that 
Miss  Merriam  says:  "Although  it  is  always  a  pleasure  to  see 
them,  they  are  particularly  well  worth  watching  at  the  nest. 
They  are  birds  of  remarkable  affection  and  intelligence,  and 
their  habits  are  peculiarly  interesting.  By  raising  and  lower- 
ing their  crests  they  gain  great  variety  of  expression,  and  when 
about  the  nest  assume  protective  attitudes,  drawing  them- 
selves up  to  look  like  long-necked  bottles  or  sticks  of  wood, 


246  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

and  sitting  absolutely  motionless  till  one  would  imagine  longer 
endurance  impossible."  The  nest  of  the  waxwing  is  rather  an 
elaborate  affair,  but  rather  loosely  made  of  twigs,  grass,  root- 
lets and  leaves  and  lined  with  finer  material.  The  eggs,  vary- 
ing in  number  from  three  to  five,  are  pale  gray  or  with  a 
slight  tinge  of  green,  and  thinly  spotted  with  purplish  black 
and  light  dull  purplish.  Herrick  says  the  food  of  the  nestlings 
consists  of  "choke-cherries  and  red  bird-cherries,  varied  with 
raspberries,  blackberries  and  blue  berries,  together  with  in- 
sects, which  during  the  last  days  of  life  at  the  nest  constitutes 
about  one-quarter  of  the  fare." 

Professor  King  says :  "These  birds  are  exceedingly  hardy 
and  voracious  and  for  this  reason  have  become  adopted  to  a 
wide  range  of  food.  During  the  early  spring  and  summer  they 
are  said  to  feed  almost  exclusively  upon  insects,  and  during  the 
last  of  July  and  August  they  feed  to  a  considerable  extent 
upon  them.  They  are  dexterous  fly  catchers,  and  when  in  the 
woods  they  labor  in  a  field  peculiar  to  themselves.  They 
often  station  themselves  upon  the  topmost  branches  of  some 
dead  tree  top  which  commands  a  view  above  the  forest,  and 
there  watch  hours  together  for  insects,  every  few  minutes 
beating  off  and  up  into  the  air  to  secure  the  winged  forms 
that  are  passing  above  them.  On  the  borders  of  the  woods 
they  often  fly  out  six  or  more  rods  for  passing  insects.  Be- 
sides being  fly  catchers  they  search  among  the  foliage  of  the 
trees  for  larvae  of  various  kinds."  Professor  Forbes  has  shown 
that  in  an  orchard  infested  with  canker  worms  the  most  useful 
bird  was  the  cedar  waxwing,  about  thirty  of  which  had  appar- 
ently taken  up  their  residence  in  the  orchard  and  were  feed- 
ing entirely  upon  the  worms.  The  number  in  each  stomach, 
determined  by  actual  count,  ranged  from  seventy  to  one  hun- 
dred and  one,  and  it  was  usually  one  hundred.  These  thirty 
birds  were,  therefore,  eating  the  pests  at  the  rate  of  three  thou- 
sand a  day,  or  ninety  thousand  for  the  month  during  which 
the  caterpillars  were  exposed  to  their  attack. 

Many  years  ago  John  King,  a  colored  boy,  lived  with  us. 
One  evening,  after  I  had  returned  from  the  office,  he  brought 
to  my  study  a  dead  bird  which  he  had  found  in  the  alley.  It 
had  not  been  dead  long,  for  it  was  yet  warm  and  limp.  It  was 


The  Cedar  Waxwing  247 

most  beautiful.  I  examined  it  carefully  and  could  not  find  any 
marks  of  violence  upon  its  body.  Evidently  it  had  flown 
against  a  telephone  wire  and  thus  killed  itself.  I  did  not  know 
the  bird,  and  after  supper  carried  it  to  Mrs.  Elizabeth  C.  Mar- 
mon,  a  student  and  great  lover  of  birds,  for  identification.  She 
identified  it  as  the  cedar  waxwing,  ampelis  cedrorum.  I  spent 
an  hour  with  her  in  looking  through  her  library  and  hearing 
her  tell  how,  in  her  after  life,  she  became  interested  in  the 
birds.  I  then  and  there  resolved  that  I  would  take  up  the 
study  of  them,  and  made  a  list  of  what  she  regarded  as  her 
best  books,  and  since  then  I  have  pursued  the  study  of  the 
birds  in  books  and  in  their  haunts  as  I  have  tramped  through 
the  fields  and  forests.  I  was  then  fifty-nine  years  old.  Before 
that  I  had  been  a  lover  of  outdoor  life  and  had  done  much 
tramping,  but  without  any  object  in  view,  except  to  enjoy 
myself.  Since  then  a  new  zest  has  been  added  to  my  tramps 
and  reading,  that  of  trying  to  acquire  exact  knowledge  concern- 
ing the  common  things  I  see  and  about  which  I  read.  I  find 
the  books  full  of  interesting  matter,  much  of  which  I  have 
used  in  the  preparation  of  this  one.  And  this  has  all  come  of 
the  fact  that  a  colored  boy  sympathetically  brought  to  my 
study  the  dead  body  of  a  cedar  waxwing,  one  of  the  most  beau- 
tiful of  our  birds — one  that  is  always  sleek,  smooth  and  unruf- 
fled, and  to  the  last  degree  particular  about  his  clothes.  The 
only  thing  that  I  have  found  charged  against  him  is  that  he 
loves  cherries  and  takes  many  of  them  that  the  selfish  farm- 
ers think  they  ought  to  have.  They  forget  the  good  he  does 
in  destroying  destructive  pests.  At  Buzzard's  Roost  the  wax- 
wings  are  to  have  all  the  cherries  they  can  eat,  for  there  I 
have  planted  and  am  growing  eight  hundred  cherry  trees,  and 
from  these  no  waxwing  or  other  bird  is  ever  to  be  driven. 


CHAPTER  XLV. 


October  30 — November  5. 

THE  FLICKER. 

Order — Pici  Family — Picidae 

Genus — Colaptes  Species — Colaptes  auratus 

Length— 12.00  to  12.75  >  wings,  5.50  to  6.60;  tail,  4.00  to  4.95. 
Migration — North,  March  ;  south,  November. 

"Whistles   highhole   out  of  the   grove 

His  summoning  loud  and  clear: 
'Chilly  it  may  be  down  your  way, 

But  the  high  south  field  has  cheer. 
On  the  sunward  side  of  the  chestnut  stump 

The  wood-grubs  wake  and  appear. 
Come  out  to  your  plowing — come  up  to  your  plowing — 

The  time  for  plowing  is  here.' " 

The  family  Picidae,  composed  of  the  woodpeckers,  has  in 
it  about  three  hundred  and  fifty  species.  These  are  found  in 
the  forests  in  all  parts  of  the  world  except  Australia  and  Mada- 
gascar. About  twenty-five  of  them  are  found  in  North  America. 
These  birds  have  stout,  straight,  chisel-pointed  bills,  with 
which  they  are  enabled  to  cut  small  holes  in  the  wood  for  the 
purpose  of  securing  insects,  and  large  holes  for  nesting  places. 
The  tongue,  as  we  shall  see,  is  peculiarly  long,  has  a  spear-like 
tip,  and  is  so  arranged  that  it  can  be  thrust  out  to  a  wonderful 
distance.  The  peculiar  structure  of  the  foot,  with  its  two  toes 
directed  forward  and  two  backward  (except  in  one  genus),  as- 
sists them  in  clinging  to  an  upright  surface,  while  the  pointed, 

249 


250  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

stiffened  tail  feathers  serve  as  a  prop  when  the  bird  is  nest- 
ing. The  eggs  of  woodpeckers  are  uniformly  white,  and  this 
is  true  of  all  birds  that  nest  in  holes.  The  reason  for  this  is 
that  they  are  safe  without  protective  colors. 

The  bill  of  the  adult  male  flicker  is  brownish,  long,  well 
shaped  and  slightly  curved ;  iris  of  the  eye,  dark ;  nape,  scarlet 
and  erectile.  Chin  and  throat,  lilac  brown  with  black  stripe  on 
each  side  of  the  throat;  wings  well  shaped,  pointed,  barred 
with  black,  and  golden  yellow  below, — hence,  its  name  golden- 
winged  woodpecker;  body  above,  light  olivaceous  brown  with 
a  light  green  tinge,  each  feather  having  a  crescentic  band  of 
black  near  the  end ;  rump  and  upper  tail  coverts  white  with 
black  bars  running  across  the  coverts ;  in  flight  the  white  is 
very  conspicuous ;  tail,  brownish  above,  yellow  below,  tips 
black,  slightly  curved  and  very  stiff,  and  it  is  used  as  a  fulcrum 
when  the  bird  is  at  work  on  the  bole  of  a  tree ;  breast  bordered 
with  a  large  black  crescent ;  rest  of  under  parts  vinaceous,  with 
black  spots ;  tarsus,  short ;  toes,  in  pairs,  two  before  and  two 
behind,  long,  heavily  scaled  and  bluish-ash ;  the  adult  female 
in  appearance,  is  like  that  of  the  male,  except  the  -black 
streak  on  the  throat  is  wanting.  No  other  bird  has  more  names 
than  the  flicker.  It  would  subserve  no  good  purpose  to  give 
them  here  and  try  to  account  for  their  origin. 

The  range  of  the  flicker  extends  from  Florida  and  the 
Gulf  coast  north  through  the  eastern  United  States  and  the 
maritime  provinces  of  Canada  to  New  Foundland  and  southern 
Labrador,  and  the  shores  of  Hudson  Bay,  to  about  latitude  58 
degrees ;  thence  in  a  northwesterly  direction  to  Alaska  to  about 
latitude  68  degrees ;  and  west  to  Assiniboia,  North  Dakota,  Ne- 
braska and  the  eastern  half  of  Texas.  It  winters  southward 
from  Indiana  and  Pennsylvania.  Those  that  migrate  come 
north  in  March  and  return  south  in  October  and  the  early 
part  of  November.  They  breed  throughout  their  range.  In 
the  Middle  West  they  mate  about  the  middle  of  March  and 
nidification  begins  about  a  fortnight  later.  In  his  courtship  the 
male  is  an  ardent  wooer.  Occasionally  two  males  make  love 
to  the  same  female  with  their  "flick-ah,  flick-ah."  I  have  often 
witnessed  this.  This  is  done  good  naturedly.  No  fighting  nor 
duels  are  engaged  in.  As  Major  Bendire  says,  "It  is  an  exceed- 


The  Flicker  251 

ingly  interesting  and  amusing  sight  to  see  a  couple  of  males 
paying  their  addresses  to  a  coy  and  coquettish  female ;  the  ap- 
parent shyness  of  the  suitors  as  they  sidle  up  to  her  and  as 
quickly  retreat  again,  the  sly  glances  given  as  one  peeps  from 
behind  a  limb  watching  the  other — playing  bo-peep — seem 
very  human." 

The  flicker  is  not  very  choice  in  the  selection  of  a  nesting 
place.  Any  old  stump  or  a  partly  decayed  limb  of  a  tree,  near 
the  outskirts  of  a  forest,  along  the  banks^of  a  creek,  beside  a 
country  road,  or  in  an  old  orchard  will  answer  its  purpose.  At 
Buzzard's  Roost  favorite  places  for  them  are  the  dead  limbs  in 
the  tops  of  the  sycamore  trees  in  the  banks  of  Fall  Creek.  Mr. 
Butler  in  his  Birds  of  Indiana  says,  "The  nicker,  with  its 
curved  bill  can  not  chisel  its  way  into  trees  as  the  other  species 
do,"  and  that  "It  uses  either  a  natural  or  artificial  cavity."  It 
is  true  that  the  nicker  has  a  slightly  curved  bill  but  I  have 
not  observed  that  "it  can  not  chisel  its  way  into  trees  as  the 
other  species  do."  On  the  contrary,  I  regard  it  as  quite  an 
adept  in  doing  this.  Wilson  takes  much  pains  in  describing  the 
ingenuity  and  perseverance  of  these  birds  in  digging  out  their 
nests.  "I  have  seen,"  he  says,  "where  they  have  dug  first  five 
inches  straight  forward,  and  then  downward  more  than  twice 
that  distance  through  a  solid  black  oak."  C.  Albert  Reed,  ed- 
itor of  American  Ornithology  says:  "The  birds  take  turns  in 
the  excavating  for  a  home,  and  the  work  proceeds  quite  rap- 
idly. Sometimes  the  chips  are  carried  to  a  distance  and  depos- 
ited, but  oftener  they  are  strewn  about  directly  under  the  nest. 
They  drill  into  the  tree  for  about  four  inches,  then  downward 
to  the  depth  of  from  six  inches  to  two  feet."  Mrs.  Wheelock 
in  her  most  excellent  book,  Birds  of  California,  says  of  the 
red-shafted  flicker,  a  close  cousin  to  the  golden-shafted  that 
"Both  male  and  female  birds  share  in  the  excavation,  working 
in  turns  of  about  twenty  minutes  each.  The  site  having  been 
chosen,  the  male  clings  to  the  surface  and  marks  with  his  bill 
a  more  or  less  regular  circle  in  a  series  of  dots,  then  begins 
excavating  inside  this  area,  using  his  bill,  not  with  a  sidewise 
twist,  as  do  many  of  the  woodpecker  family,  but  striking 
downwards  and  prying  off  the  chips  as  with  a  pickaxe." 

The  eggs  of  the  flicker  usually  are  laid  upon  the  fine  chips 


252  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

made  in  excavating  the  nest.  Occasionally  the  nest  is  lined 
with  a  few  blades  of  grass.  Five  to  nine  eggs  constitute  a  set. 
The  fecundity  of  the  flicker  is  known  to  be  very  great.  Prof. 
B.  W.  Everman  reports  having  taken  thirty-seven  eggs  from 
one  of  their  nests,  between  May  4  and  June  22,  1885,  and  in  the 
Young  Oologist  of  June,  1884,  Mr.  Charles  L.  Phillips  records 
that  he  found  a  nest  May  6,  1883,  in  a  cavity  of  a  large  willow 
with  two  eggs  in  it,  that  he  took  one  of  them.  Thereafter  he 
took  from  the  nest  seventy-one  eggs  in  seventy-three  days. 
In  Forest  and  Stream,  June  25,  1885,  Mr.  Stewart  Ogilby  re- 
ports rinding  a  brood  of  nineteen  young  flickers  in  one  nest,  all 
alive  and  apparently  in  good  condition.  The  eggs  are  oval  and 
glossy  white.  Incubation  lasts  about  fifteen  days.  The  par- 
ents are  very  devoted  to  their  young,  feeding  them  by  regur- 
gitation,  first  at  the  bottom  of  the  nest  and  later  from  the 
mouth  of  it.  The  young  are  able  to  leave  the  nest  in  about  six- 
teen days,  but  are  fed  by  the  parents  for  a  considerable  time 
after  they  have  left  it.  I  saw  an  old  one  doing  this  at  Somer- 
leaze,  August  6,  1904.  She  came  to  the  front  lawn  with  four 
young  ones,  and  led  them  in  a  search  for  ants.  When  she 
found  where  the  ants  were  coming  out  of  the  ground,  she 
would  station  one  of  the  young  there  to  watch  for  and  catch 
them,  and  this  it  would  do  by  sticking  its  bill  far  into  the  ant 
hole.  Finding  another  hole  she  would  put  another  young  one 
to  work  in  it — and  so  on,  until  she  had  them  all  at  work  eating 
the  ants.  The  young  seemed  to  be  full  grown  and  were  very 
handsome  birds.  I  noticed  that  they  hopped  in  going  over 
the  ground  much  like  an  English  sparrow  does. 

Accompanying  this  chapter  is  a  half-tone  photogravure 
made  from  a  photograph  taken  by  my  friend  Dr.  Kellogg  to  il- 
lustrate the  subject  of  protective  coloration.  This  is  a  subject 
of  ever  increasing  interest  to  bird  students.  By  protective  col- 
oration is  meant  colors  so  adjusted  as  to  conceal  the  bird. 
"We,"  as  has  been  said  by  Mrs.  Eckstrom  in  The  Bird  Book, 
"can  not  go  into  all  the  details  of  this  subject, — even  men  of 
science  are  agreed  to  dispute  about  it — but  we  can  at  least 
notice  among  the  birds  of  our  acquaintance  instances  where 
color  helps  to  conceal  from  our  eyes.  If  all  our  sparrows,  for 
example,  had  blue  or  red  backs,  how  much  more  readily  we 


Young  fleckers  on  a  stump 


Kellogg 


The  Flicker  253 

should  discover  them ;  for  sparrows  have  a  way  of  staying  near 
the  ground,  either  directly  upon  it,  or  in  low  bushes,  or  about 
fences,  where  a  bright-colored  back  and  breast  would  serve  to 
distinguish  them  instantly.  Now  most  of  our  common  spar- 
rows, we  find,  are  dull-colored  little  birds  varied  with  stripes 
about  the  back,  breast,  and  head  that  seem  to  blend  with  the 
colors  of  the  earth  and  with  the  grass  stems  they  live  among." 
In  the  illustration,  notice  how  the  colors  of  the  young  flickers 
blend  with  the  color  of  the  old  stump,  and  the  same  would  be 
true  were  they  upon  the  bole  of  a  tree. 

The  white  patch  on  the  rump  of  the  flicker  which  is  seen 
only  when  it  is  in  flight,  is  a  fine  example  to  illustrate  another 
subject  which  is  of  much  interest  to  bird  students,  and  that  is, 
the  subject  of  color  calls  among  the  birds.  Recognition,  sig- 
naling, or  other  directive  colors  have,  with  more  or  less  reason, 
been  made  to  include  many  different  types  of  markings.  As 
Baskett  has  well  said  in  The  Story  of  the  Birds,  "Birds  strik- 
ingly exhibit  these  social  or  signal  colors  on  various  parts  of 
the  body.  They  may  be  conspicuous  head  markings,  as  in 
some  plovers ;  throat,  patches,  as  in  our  bob-white  and  wild 
(Canada)  goose;  rump  spots  as  in  the  flicker  or  lapwing;  vari- 
ous tail  spots,  tips  or  blotches,  or  the  entire  whiteness  of  one 
or  more  tail  feathers ;  wholly  or  partial  white  feathers  among 
the  wing  quills,  or  white  blotches  or  bars  upon  the  smaller 
feathers  of  the  wings — more  conspicuous  usually  when  spread 
in  flight.  There  are  many  other  forms — the  entire  wing  or 
back  or  some  other  part  being  conspicuous." 

The  tongue  of  this  and  of  the  other  woodpeckers  is  a  most 
useful  instrument.  Its  construction  is  most  wonderful.  That 
of  the  flicker  can  be  extended  two  and  a  half  inches  beyond 
the  tip  of  the  bill.  Wilson  says  "its  tongue  is  round,  worm- 
shaped,  flattened  towards  the  tip,  pointed,  and  furnished  with 
minute  barbs ;  it  is  long,  missile,  and  can  be  instantly  pro- 
truded to  an  uncommon  distance.  The  os  hyoides,  or  internal 
parts  of  the  tongue,  like  those  of  its  tribe,  is  a  substance  for 
strength  and  elasticity  resembling  whalebone,  divided  into  two 
branches,  each  the  thickness  of  a  knitting-needle,  that  pass, 
one  on  each  side  of  the  neck,  (see  illustration),  to  the  hind- 
head,  where  they  unite  and  run  along  the  skull  in  a  groove, 


254 


Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 


covered  with  a  thin  membrane  or  sheath ;  descend  into  upper 
mandible  by  the  right  side  of  the  right  nostril,  and  reach  to 
within  half  an  inch  of  the  point  of  the  bill,  to  which  they  are 
attached  by  another  extremely  elastic  membrane,  that  yields 
when  the  tongue  is  thrown  out,  and  contracts  as  it  is  re- 


Special  Development  of  Tongues  of  Woodpeckers:  a,  skull  of 
flicker  (Colaptes  auratus),  showing  root  of  tongue  extending  to  tip 
of  bill;  6,  head  of  hairy  woodpecker  (Dryobates  villosus),  showing 
root  of  tongue  curving  around  eye. 


Tongue  of  Woodpecker:    a,  hyoid  of  flicker  (Colaptes  auratus); 
6,  tip  of  tongue  of  downy  woodpecker  (Dryobates  pubescens). 

tracted."  The  surface  of  the  tongue  is  covered  with  a  viscid 
substance  which  causes  the  insects  and  larvae  to  adhere  to  it 
when  it  is  protruded  into  a  boring  or  an  ant's  nest.  The  tip 
of  the  tongue  is  sharp  pointed  and  barbed  like  a  fisherman's 
spear,  thus  enabling  the  bird  to  spear  the  larvae  of  a  borer 
that  is  deep  down  in  its  hole,  and  pull  it  out. 


The  Flicker  255 

The  flicker,  although  one  of  the  woodpeckers,  has  habits 
quite  different  from  the  majority  of  its  family.  Instead  of  drill- 
ing holes  in  trees  for  all  of  its  living,  it  gets  most  of  its  food 
from  the  ground.  Nearly  half  of  its  food  consists  of  ants.  In 
two  hundred  and  thirty  stomachs  examined  at  Washington 
fifty-six  per  cent,  was  animal  matter,  thirty-nine  per  cent,  veg- 
etable, and  five  per  cent  mineral.  Two  of  them  contained  over 
three  thousand  ants  each.  Other  insects  consisted  of  beetles, 
bugs,  grasshoppers,  crickets,  caterpillars,  May-flies,  and  white 
ants. 

In  the  chapter  on  the  cardinal  the  various  kinds  of  birds' 
bills  and  the  various  uses  to  which  they  are  put  is  mentioned. 
One  of  the  uses  not  mentioned  there  is  that  of  dressing  or 
preening  of  the  feathers.  The  illustration  accompanying  this 
chapter  shows  the  flicker  in  the  act  of  doing  this.  It  is  done 
by  drawing  the  feathers  from  their  base  outward  between  the 
mandibles.  Not  only  do  they  clean  the"m  but  they  also  oil 
them.  For  this  purpose  Nature  has  provided  them  with  an  oil 
gland  which  is  constantly  replenished,  so  that  the  bird  is  never 
without  a  supply.  This  gland  is  located  under  the  upper  tail 
coverts,  and  is  always  cut  out  when  a  fowl  is  being  dressed  for 
the  table.  Our  illustration  shows  the  bird  in  the  act  of  reach- 
ing for  it.  The  oil  is  extracted  by  the  bird's  pinching  or  press- 
ing the  gland  with  its  mandibles. 


RED-HEADED  WOODPECKER. 

(Melanerpes  erythrocephalus). 

Life-size. 


CHAPTER  XLVI. 


November  6 — November  12. 

THE  RED-HEADED  WOODPECKER. 

Order — Pici  Family — Picidse 

Genus — Melanerpes  Species — Melanerpes  erythrocephalus 

Length— 9.25  to  9.75  ;  wing,  5.30  to  5.70 ;  tail,  3.60  to  3.75. 
Irregular  resident. 

"How  does  he  know  where  to  dig  his  hole, 

The  woodpecker  there  in  the  elm  bole? 

How  does  he  know  what  kind  of  a  limb 

To  use  for  a  drum  or  to  burrow  in? 

How  does  he  find  where  the  young  grub  grows — 

I'd  like  to  know." 

To  answer  the  questions  propounded  by  the  poet,  and 
many  others  equally  curious,  has  made  the  study  of  the  wood- 
peckers an  intensely  interesting  one.  Of  all  our  birds,  perhaps 
none  of  them  are  more  strangely  interesting  thaa  they.  Of  this 
family,  the  red-headed  woodpecker  is  a  conspicuous  member. 

Of  this  woodpecker,  Wilson  says,  "His  tri-colored  plum- 
age, red,  white,  and  black  glossed  with  steel  blue,  is  so  striking, 
and  characteristic ;  and  his  predatory  habits  in  the  orchards 
and  corn-fields,  added  to  his  numbers,  and  fondness  for  hover- 
ing along  the  fences,  so  notorious,  that  almost  every  child  is 
acquainted  with  him."  And  Mr.  Burroughs  says,  "His  delib- 
erate, dignified  ways  and  his  bright  uniform  of  red,  white  and 
steel-blue  bespeak  him  as  an  officer  of  rank."  And  might  he 
not  have  added  as  an  American  officer,  since  his  colors  are  red, 

257 


258  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

white  and  blue?  In  flight  "with  a  white  gown,  a  black  mantle 
and  a  scarlet  hood,"  the  red-headed  woodpecker  is  a  beautiful 
bird.  His  flight  is  undulating  and  surging.  After  two  or  three 
strokes  of  the  wings,  he  almost  closes  them  and  then  follows 
the  curving  wave  of  his  flight.  He  is  an  easy  bird  to  identify. 

In  appearance  the  female  is  like  the  male.  The  bill  of  this 
woodpecker  is  light  blue,  black  towards  the  extremity,  and 
strong;  iris  of  eye  dark  hazel ;  head  and  neck  of  the  adult,  crim- 
son red  all  around  with  a  narrow  crescent  of  black  on  the  up- 
per part  of  the  breast;  wings  well  shaped,  bluish-black  with 
secondaries  white,  tinted  with  red ;  upper  part  of  tail,  bluish- 
black  with  under  coverts  white;  rump  and  lower  parts  of  body 
white;  rump  and  lower  parts  of  body  white  with  reddish  tint; 
legs  and  feet  bluish-green ;  claws  light  blue.  During  the  first 
season,  the  head  and  neck  of  the  young  birds  are  blackish-gray 
and  the  white  on  the  wings  is  spotted  with  black. 

The  red-headed  woodpecker  is  a  bird  of  temperate  North 
America.  Its  range  extends  from  the  southern  United  States 
north  through  the  states,  and  the  eastern  provinces  of  the  Do- 
minion of  Canada  to  about  latitude  46  degrees ;  rare  or  casual 
only  in  the  maritime  provinces ;  in  the  interior  in  Manitoba 
north  to  about  latitude  50  degrees ;  west  in  the  United  States  to  the 
eastern  slopes  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  from  Montana  to  Col- 
orado, western  Kansas,  the  Indian  Territory,  and  the  eastern 
half  of  Texas.  It  is  an  irregular  migrant.  Those  that  migrate, 
go  southward  the  last  of  October  and  the  first  half  of  Novem- 
ber and  return  north  very  early,  if  the  conditions  are  favorable. 

The  migration  of  the  woodpecker  depends  very  much  upon 
the  supply  of  food,  which  formerly  during  the  winter  months, 
consisted  largely  of  beechnuts  and  acorns  that  had  been  stored 
away  by  it  in  the  knot  holes  of  the  trees  and  the  cracks  of 
fence  stakes.  My  brother  and  I,  when  we  were  boys,  were  re- 
quired to  get  in  the  winter  wood  from  our  father's  woodland, 
which  was  composed  largely  of  sugar  maple  and  beech  trees. 
We  seldom  felled  a  tree  without  examining  it  to  see  if  there 
were  any  knot  holes  in  it  which  had  been  taken  possession  of 
by  the  woodpeckers,  and  usually  we  were  rewarded  for  our 
trouble.  Often  we  would  get  a  quart  of  beechnuts  from  one  of 
these  holes.  It  was  surprising  how  tightly  the  beechnuts  were 


Young  woodpecker 


Kellogg 


The  Red-Headed  Woodpecker  259 

stored  away  in  the  holes.  Those  were  the  palmy  days  for  these 
woodpeckers.  The  extensive  forest  of  beech  and  oak  furnished 
them  their  winter  supply  of  food,  and  the  decaying  trees  in  the 
many  "clearings"  their  summer  supply  of  insects  and  larvae 
with  which  to  feed  their  young.  It  is  not  so  now.  The  forests 
have  disappeared  and  when  the  winter  comes  the  woodpeckers 
must  migrate  southward  until  they  find  a  place  where  their 
food  is  not  covered  with  snow.  In  the  summer  time  they  are 
compelled  to  obtain  much  of  their  food  from  the  air  and  the 
ground,  and  because  of  this  they  are  taking  on  new  habits  of 
life.  Many  of  them  are  becoming  adept  flycatchers,  and  it  is 
interesting  to  see  them  dart  off  from  a  place  of  advantage  and 
catch  a  passing  insect  on  the  wing,  or  a  grasshopper  or  beetle 
that  may  be  on  the  ground.  At  Buzzard's  Roost  we  have 
many  fine  beech  trees.  One  of  these  is  the  largest  of  its  kind 
that  I  have  ever  seen.  At  the  base  it  measures  fifteen  feet  in 
circumference.  See  illustration  opposite  page  two.  It  is 
known  as  the  Nesbit  beech,  from  the  circumstance,  that 
two  men  '  by  the  name  of  Nesbit,  in  hauling  logs 
with  an  ox  team  from  the  uplands  down  the  hill  from 
where  the  cabins  stand,  the  chain  which  locked  the  wagon 
broke,  and  that  caused  the  wagon  to  be  crowded  upon  the 
oxen,  and  them  to  run  down  the  hill  and  against  this  tree 
and  the  neck  of  one  of  the  oxen  to  be  broken  and  thereby  kill- 
ing it.  These  trees  are  to  be  preserved  for  the  birds  and  as  an 
evidence  of  what  was  at  one  time  plentiful  in  this  country. 

The  red-headed  woodpecker  breeds  throughout  its  range. 
Its  nest  is  a  fine  specimen  of  workmanship  and  is  usually  ex- 
cavated in  the  bole  or  limb  of  a  tree,  telegraph  pole  or  fence 
stake,  and  ranges  in  height  from  six  to  seventy-five  feet  from 
the  ground.  It  is  when  excavating  these  that  it  can  b'e  said 

that  he  sings : 

"I  am  birddom's  carpenter; 

Can  make  the  splinters  fly; 
On  poles  and  posts  and  forest  trees 

My  merry  trade  I   ply. 
My  bill  is  my  chisel, 
My  tail  is  my  stool." 

And  true  enough  he  is  a  carpenter  for  he  makes  a  true 
circle  for  his  hole,  and  his  bill  is  his  chisel  and  his  tail  is  his 


260  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

stool.  The  bill  is  long,  straight  and  wedge-shaped,  with  flat- 
tened and  truncated  tip  and  sides  more  or  less  ridged  and  is  ad- 
mirably adapted  to  making  such  excavations,  and  pecking  holes 
in  the  bark  and  boles  of  the  trees  in  search  of  insects  and  larvae 
which  are  there  concealed.  And  it  is  wonderful  how  he  uses 
his  tail  when  doing  these  things.  The  tail  feathers  are  short, 
stiff  and  spinelike  at  the  ends.  He  has  four  toes — two  in  front 
and  two  behind.  With  these  he  takes  hold  of  the  bole  of  the 
tree  with  a  vice-like  grip,  and  then  throws  himself  back  on  his 
tail,  which  he  uses  as  a  fulcrum  for  support,  and  then  he  is 
ready  for  work  with  his  ivory-billed  chisel. 

I  have  purposely  used  the  masculine  pronoun  in  describ- 
ing the  building  of  the  nest.  The  books,  as  far  as  I  have  ex- 
amined them,  say  that  both  the  male  and  female  take  part  in 
building  the  nest.  In  the  January  number,  1902,  of  Birds  and 
Nature,  is  a  carefully  prepared  article  by  William  Harrison 
Lewis  in  which  he  says,  "For  five  years,  with  each  returning 
spring,  a  pair  of  red-headed  woodpeckers  has  come,  to  make 
their  nest  and  rear  their  young  near  my  cabin  door.  It  was  on 
a  cold  drizzly  day  the  last  of  April,  when  I  observed  my  neigh- 
kor  *  *  *  j-je  proved  to  be  no  stickler  for  time,  working 
early  and  late  with  short  intermissions,  when  he  would  dart 
out  into  the  air  and  stop  some  passing  insect  that  was  quickly 
disposed  of.  At  the  end  of  two  weeks  the  nest  had  been  com- 
pleted on  the  same  day  the  female  arrived.  Was  it  a  coin- 
cidence? It  would  seem  so,  for  each  succeeding  year  the  male 
preceded  his  mate  by  a  fortnight,  in  which  time  the  place  was 
selected  and  the  new  home  made  ready.  *  *  *  It  was 
about  the  tenth  of  May  of  the  following  spring  when  my  red- 
headed neighbor  returned  from  his  southern  trip.  *  *  * 
After  several  days'  work  in  the  new  nest,  he  came  in  contact 
with  the  hard  resinous  heart  of  a  knot  that  he  was  unable  to 
remove.  To  get  by  this  obstruction  and  still  be  able  to  utilize 
the  work  done,  he  changed  the  entrance  from  a  circle  to  an 
ellipse  by  extending  it  downward.  This  bit  of  strategy  worked 
well  in  getting  by  the  difficulty,  but  it  proved  to  be  only  tem- 
porary. The  nest  was  completed  in  the  allotted  two  weeks 
and  the  female  came  on  time.  After  a  very  warm  greeting  she 
was  shown  the  nest  for  her  approval ;  but  on  sight  of  the  new- 


The  Red-Headed  Woodpecker  261 

fangled  entrance,  she  halted,  showing  her  disapproval  in  many 
ways.  He  made  many  efforts  during  the  next  two  days  to 
overcome  her  objections.  She  was  obdurate,  and,  after  sitting 
quiet  until  he  was  through  his  demonstrations  and  chatter,  she 
flew  away  over  the  fields,  uttering  a  loud  cry  as  she  left  him 
sticking  to  the  side  of  the  tree.  He  sat  still  a  few  moments, 
seemingly  in  a  brown  study,  then  he  began  hopping  about  the 
trunk  of  the  tree,  where  in  a  short  time  he  had  selected  a  place 
and  gone  to  work  with  a  will  in  making  a  new  nest,  that  was 
completed  in  a  little  more  than  eight  days.  Very  little  was 
seen  of  the  female  during  the  completion  of  the  new  home. 
She  was  in  the  yard  a  few  times,  but  never  near  the  tree  where 
the  male  was  at  work.  He  had  made  no  mistake  this  time,  the 
entrance  was  round  and  cut  clean  as  an  augur  hole.  When  the 
madam  was  escorted  to  the  new  nest  there  was  no  hesitancy 
about  inspecting  it ;  she  entered  at  once.  Coming  out  a  moment 
later,  she  made  it  known  that  the  nest  was  satisfactory.  The 
old  man  was  jubilant,  expressing  it  by  voice  and  action."  I 
leave  the  matter  with  the  reader  to  judge  which  of  them  builds 
the  nest. 

The  eggs  of  the  red-headed  woodpecker  are  a  pure  white 
color,  short  and  almost  ovate.  An  egg  is  laid  daily;  from 
four  to  eight  eggs  constitute  a  clutch.  Incubation 
lasts  about  two  weeks,  and  both  sexes  assist  in  it.  Mr.  Lewis 
in  his  account  of  My  Red-Headed  Neighbor  during  their 
fourth  year  with  him  says  that  "Household  affairs  went  along 
smoothly  till  one  day  the  old  man  was  keeping  house  while 
the  madam  had  gone  out  for  lunch.  At  the  expiration  of  about 
twenty  minutes  he  came  out  of  the  nest.  As  he  flew  away 
he  gave  a  loud  call  that  on  former  occasions  had  invariably 
brought  his  mate  to  take  charge  of  the  nest,  but  to  this  call 
she  did  not  answer.  She  never  returned.  He  waited  a  few 
moments,  calling  for  her,  then  returned  to  the  nest.  Ten  min- 
utes later  he  came  out  again  repeating  the  call  several  times  as 
he  flew  from  the  tree  to  the  house  and  back  again  to  the  nest, 
about  which  he  showed  much  concern.  Five  minutes  more  and 
for  the  third  time  he  left  the  nest,  flying  down  in  the  orchard 
where  the  female  often  went  for  food.  Soon  returning  he  went 
direct  to  the  nest,  seeming  to  understand  that  some  misfor- 


262  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

tune  had  overtaken  his  mate.  *  *  *  He  stuck  to  the  nest 
for  the  next  three  days.  Then  he  carried  out  the  broken  shells 
and  began  bringing  food  for  two  mouths  that  were  always 
agape.  *  *  *  The  undivided  care  of  the  family  left  little 
time  for  personal  attention.  He  looked  shabby  and  forlorn  by 
the  time  the  young  birds  were  old  enough  to  quit  the  nest  and 
seek  their  own  food.  Then  he  spent  much  time  in  mending  his 
appearance." 

The  young  are  fed  one  at  a  time,  and  from  the  rim  of  the 
nest  as  soon  as  they  are  able  to  climb  up  to  it.  When  one  has 
been  thus  fed,  it  stands  aside  and  makes  way  for  another.  A 
favorite  place  for  the  young  after  they  have  left  the  nest  is  on 
the  stakes  of  a  rail  fence  along  a  highway.  These  wood^ 
peckers  are  very  fond  of  cherries  and  carry  many  of  them  to 
their  young.  When  I  was  young  they  were  regarded  as 
thieves,  and  a  favorite  pastime  with  the  farmers  was  to  set  a 
pole  in  the  ground  near  a  cherry  tree  for  them  to  alight  upon 
and -when  they  did  so,  to  strike  it  with  the  poll  of  an  ax  or 
some  other  blunt  instrument,  and  stun  them  so  that  they  would 
fall  to  the  ground  and  become  the  easy  victims  of  those  who 
begrudged  them  the  cherries  they  were  taking.  This  was  a 
cruel  practice,  for  it  not  only  took  the  lives  of  the  old  birds, 
but  their  young  who  must  necessarily  starve  to  death.  Happily 
the  people  are  being  educated  to  the  great  value  of  these  birds 
and  no  longer  begrudge  them  the  cherries  they  take  in  feeding 
their  young,  and  the  ruthless  killing  of  them  is  a  thing  of  the 
past.  A  careful  study  of  the  food  of  these  birds  by  the  United 
States  Department  of  Agriculture  shows  that  it  consists  of 
fifty  per  cent,  animal,  forty-seven  per  cent,  vegetable  and  three 
per  cent,  mineral  matter.  The  animal  matter  consists  of  ants, 
wasps,  beetles,  grasshoppers,  mot.hs,  caterpillars,  spiders,  and 
myriapods.  Ants  amounted  to  about  eleven  per  cent;  beetles 
nearly  one-third  and  grasshoppers  and  crickets  six  per  cent,  of 
the  food  taken  by  them.  Prof.  Forbes,  in  his  examination  of 
their  food  in  Michigan  found  that  thirty-two  per  cent,  of  it 
consisted  of  canker  worms. 

This  woodpecker  is  sociable.,  playful  and  noisy.  He  loves 
to  play  "hide  and  peep."  This  he  does  by  alighting  on  the  bole 
of  a  tree  near  his  observer  and  shuffling  himself  around  on  the 


The  Red-Headed  Woodpecker  263 

farther  side  of  the  tree  and  then  peeping  at  him.  When  tramp- 
ing in  the  woods  I  have  had  them  do  this,  and  quite  occasion- 
ally as  much  as  to  say,  "Why  are  you  here"  and  "what  do  you 
want?"  They  do  not  sing.  Their  call  is  a  loud  "tchur,  tchur" 
or  "ker-r-ruck"  and  another  is  "charr,  charr"  or  "Kahrr,  kahrr." 
As  a  musician  he  is  a  drummer.  For  a  drum  he  uses  the  dead, 
resonant  bole  of  a  tree,  or  a  fence  stake  in  the  country  or  a 
telephone  or  telegraph  pole  in  the  city.  On  the  latter  he  "ham- 
mers out  a  concord  of  sweet  sounds  from  the  mellow  wood- 
notes,  the  clear  peal  of  the  glass,  and  the  ringing  overtures 
of  the  wires."  They  are  very  fond  of  drumming  on  a  sheet  of 
tin  and  frequently  are  heard  from  the  roofs  of  our  dwellings. 


164 


DOWNY  WOODPECKER. 

(Dryobates  pubescent. 

Life-size. 


CHAPTER  XLVII. 


November  13 — November  19. 

THE  DOWNY  WOODPECKER. 

Order — Pici  Family — Picidse 

Genus — Dryobates  Species — Dryobates  pubescens 

Length — 6.25  to  7.00;  wing,  3.55  to  4.15 ;  tail,  2.30  to  2.70. 
Permanent  resident. 

"Do  you  know  a  little  bird  that  in  mourning  shades  is  dressed, 
Black  and  white  upon  his  wings,  black  and  white  upon  his  head — 
Underneath  a  bib  of  white  on  his  pretty  throat  and  breast; 
While  above  upon  his  nape  gleams  a  shining  bow  of  red?" 

The  downy  woodpecker  is  the  smallest  of  its  family  inhab- 
iting the  United  States.  As  its  name  indicates  it  has  a  downy 
coat.  In  appearance  the  sexes  are  alike,  except  that  the  female 
has  no  red  on  the  back  of  the  head.  The  bill  of  the  adult  male 
is  of  a  bluish  horn  color,  grooved,  and  wedge-formed  like  most 
of  his  family ;  tongue  formed  like  that  of  the  flicker,  horny 
towards  the  tip,  where  for  one-eighth  of  an  inch  it  is  barbed ; 
iris  of  the  eye,  hazel ;  top  of  the  head  black ;  across  the  back  of 
it  is  a  red  band ;  over  and  underneath  the  eyes  is  a  white  stripe ; 
extending  around  the  head  from  eye  to  eye  is  a  black  band ; 
wings  black  and  spotted  with  white ;  tail  with  recurved  tips 
feathers  except  outside  ones,  black  and  occasionally  tipped 
with  white ;  outer  tail  feathers  white  barred  with  black ;  under 
part  of  body  white,  slightly  tinged  with  red  ;  tarsus,  very  short; 
toes  in  pairs,  two  in  front  and  two  to  the  rear. 

The  downy  woodpecker  is  distributed  over  a  large  extent 
of  territory,  but  is  a  non-migrant.  When  once  located  it  re- 

265 


266  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

mains  in  that  vicinity  and  may  be  found  throughout  the  year. 
Its  geographical  distribution  extends  from  Florida  and  the 
Gulf  States  north  through  the  United  States  and  the  Do- 
minion of  Canada  into  Southern  Labrador,  to  about  latitude 
55  degrees ;  thence  in  a  northerly  direction  to  northern  Alaska, 
to  about  latitude  66  degrees ;  west  to  Manitoba,  North  and 
South  Dakota,  Nebraska,  Kansas,  the  Indian  Territory,  and 
eastern  Texas.  Irregularly  to  Manitoba,  Colorado,  Idaho,  Ore- 
gon, Washington  and  California.  It  breeds  throughout  most 
of  its  range.  In  the  Middle  West  the  nest  is  begun  about  the 
second  or  third  week  in  May.  The  holes  for  the  nest  are  usu- 
ally excavated  in  a  dead  willow,  poplar,  oak,  or  linden  tree 
and  varies  in  height  from  four  to  thirty  feet,  usually  about  fif- 
teen feet.  The  entrance  is  just  large  enough  to  admit  the  bird 
and  varies  from  one  and  a  half  to  two  inches.  As  is  the  rule 
with  the  woodpeckers,  the  hole  is  dug  into  the  tree  at  a  right 
angle  for  some  distance  and  then  downward.  The  lower  part 
of  the  cavity  is  enlarged  in  a  gourd-like  shape.  "Both  sexes," 
says  Major  Bendire,  "assist  in  this  work,  and  it  takes  about  a 
week  to  complete  a  suitable  excavation.  After  it  is  finished 
the  male  frequently  digs  out  a  somewhat  shallower  one  for 
himself  in  the  same  tree,  or  in  another  close  by.  A  new  site  is 
usually  selected  each  season  in  the  vicinity  of  the  old  one,  but 
occasionally  this  is  cleaned  out,  deepened  a  little,  and  used  for 
several  years  in  succession.  Each  pair  of  birds  lay  claim  to  a 
certain  range,  and  intruders  on  this  are  driven  away."  Three 
to  six  glossy  white  eggs  constitute  a  clutch.  Incubation  lasts 
about  twelve  days  and  both  sexes  take  part  in  it.  But  one 
brood  is  raised  in  a  season.  The  young  are  diligently  cared  for 
both  in  and  after  they  have  left  the  nest.  Dr.  Judd  says,  "The 
stomachs  of  three  nestling  downy  woodpeckers  and  their  pa- 
rents contained  ants,  spiders,  and  beetles.  The  young  had  eat- 
en more  spiders  and  fewer  beetles  than  the  adults,  but  the  prin- 
cipal food  in  all  the  stomachs  was  ants. 

Prof.  Beal  in  his  very  able  report,  How  Birds  Affect  the 
Orchard  says,  "A  study  of  the  contents  of  the  stomachs  of 
many  specimens  of  the  downy  woodpecker  shows  that  nearly 
one-fourth  of  the  yearly  food  consists  of  ants.  A  celebrated 
French  writer  upon  popular  natural  history  has  spoken  of  the 


The  Downy  Woodpecker  267 

ant  as  'the  little  black  milkmaid,  who  pastures  her  green  cows 
in  the  meadow  of  a  rose  leaf.'  This  is  a  graphic,  if  not  some- 
what fanciful,  picture  of  the  relations  of  ants  and  plant  lice; 
but  unfortunately  the  black  milkmaid  does  not  limit  her  pas- 
tures to  the  rose-leaf  meadows.  There  are  comparatively  few 
plants  which  do  not  suffer  to  some  extent  by  the  ravages  of 
plant  lice,  and  fruit  trees  and  ornamental  shrubs  seem  to  be 
more  subject  to  their  attacks.  Ants  protect  these  lice  from 
harm,  and  when  the  plant  on  which  they  are  feeding  is  ex- 
hausted, carry  them  to  fresh  pastures,  and  in  some  cases  ac- 
tually build  shelters  over  them.  Besides  destroying  the  ants 
the  downy  woodpecker  eats  many  of  the  lice.  *  *  *  Of 
the  food  of  the  downy  woodpecker  13  per  cent,  consists  of 
wood-boring  coleopterous  larvae,  insects  that  do  an  immense 
amount  of  damage  to  fruit  and  forest  trees,  and  are,  as  stated, 
protected  from  the  attack  of  ordinary  birds  by  their  habit  of 
burrowing  in  trees.  Besides  the  grubs  taken  from  within  the 
wood,  the  woodpecker  eats  many  of  the  parent  insects  from 
whose  eggs  these  grubs  are  hatched.  It  also  destroys  numer- 
ous other  species  that  live  upon  the  foliage  and  bark.  Cater- 
pillars, both  those  that  bore  into  the  tree  and  those  that  live 
upon  the  leaves,  constitute  16  per  cent,  of  its  food,  and  bugs 
that  live  on  berries  and  give  to  them  such  a  disagreeable  taste 
form  a  considerable  portion  of  its  diet.  Bark  lice  or  scale  in- 
sects, pests  of  the  worst  description,  are  also  eaten  by  this 
bird,  and  to  an  extent  that  is  surprising  when  their  minute 
size  is  considered."  Is  not  this  a  good  record  for  the 
"Downy"? 

The  reader  by  examining  the  illustration  will  note  that  im- 
mediately under  the  bill  of  "Downy"  and  to  the  right  of  it  are 
two  small  round  holes  in  the  bark  of  the  tree  to  which  he 
clings.  These  are  suggestive.  "Downy"  is  sometimes  called 
the  Little  Guinea  Woodpecker  and  the  Little  Sapsucker.  As 
the  last  name  indicates  he  is  accused  of  being  a  sapsucker, 
whether  rightfully  so  or  not,  I  am  not  prepared  to  say.  From 
what  Prof.  Beal  says  of  his  food,  I  am  inclined  to  the  belief 
that  the  holes  are  made  to  catch  larvae  and  ants,  which  we 
know  frequently  are  found  under  and  in  the  crevices  of  the 
bark  of  trees.  As  I  have  walked  to  and  from  my  office  I  have 


268  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

frequently  found  fresh  bits  of  bark  at  the  base  of  the  trees  and 
almost  invariably  have  found  that  it  was  occasioned  by  the 
Downy,  quite  a  few  of  whom  come  into  our  city — especially 
in  the  winter  season.  Winter  seems  to  have  no  terrors  for 
them.  The  contented  little  creatures  always  seem  so  busy.  I 
have  observed  that  they  not  only  work  on  the  boles  of  the 
trees  but  far  out  on  the  limbs  of  them. 

They  have  a  very  pleasing  little  call  note  which  they  utter 
as  they  work. 

"A  little  woodpecker  am  I, 

And  you  may   always   know 
When  I  am  searching  for  a  worm, 

For  tap,  tap,  tap,  I  go." 

Of  this  woodpecker,  Major  Bendire  says:  "It  is  not  as 
noisy  a  bird  as  the  majority  of  woodpeckers,  and  utters  but 
few  notes,  except  during  mating  season  when  two  or  three 
males  are  in  pursuit  of  a  female.  While  searching  for  food  it 
utters  occasionally  a  low  'pshir,  pshir.'  One  of  its  common  call 
notes  sounds  like  'pwit,  pwit,'  terminating  with  'tehee,  tehee, 
tehee,'  rapidly  repeated.  Another  note,  uttered  when  a  pair 
are  chasing  each  other,  reminds  one  somewhat  of  the  'kick- 
kick'  of  the  flicker,  but  is  not  uttered  as  loudly.  In  the  early 
spring  the  male  frequently  amuses  himself  by  persistently 
drumming  on  some  resonant  dry  limb,  often  for  fifteen  min- 
utes at  a  time,  to  attract  the  attention  of  his  mate,  or  as  a  chal- 
lenge to  some  rival,  but  later  in  the  season  this  is  less  fre- 
quently heard.  It  is  exceedingly  graceful  in  all  its  movements 
on  a  tree  trunk,  moving  up  or  down  as  well  as  sidewise  with 
equal  facility,  and  I  have  seen  it  hanging  perfectly  motionless 
for  minutes  at  a  time  in  the  same  position,  apparently  as  if  in 
deep  thought." 

The  one  thing  most  noticeable  about  the  birds  is  their 
adaptability  to  all  conditions.  For  instance,  we  have  birds  of 
the  field  and  prairie  that  live  on  the  ground ;  birds  that  live  on 
the  bodies  of  our  trees ;  birds  that  live  in  the  tree  tops  among 
the  twigs  and  leaves  of  the  trees,  and  birds  that  live  in  mid- 
air and  are  almost  constantly  in  flight.  Each  of 'these  is  won- 
derfully adapted  to  its  sphere  and  condition  of  life,  and  as  I 
look  at  it,  especially  created  and  fitted  to  wage  a  warfare  for 


The  Downy  Woodpecker  269 

the  better  condition  of  man.  But  for  this  ceaseless  warfare  of 
the  birds,  man  could  not  continue  to  exist.  The  conflict  of 
good  and  evil  is  not  within  man  alone ;  in  the  outer  world  it  is 
ever  apparent.  Without  the  birds,  the  insect  pests  of  the  world 
would  destroy  all  vegetable  life,  and  this  is  absolutely  essential 
to  man's  continued  existence.  And  so  it  occurs  to  me  that  of 
all  living  things  the  birds  are  man's  best  friends. 

The  woodpecker  family  is  the  one  that  lives  upon  the  boles 
or  bodies  of  our  trees.  The  wonderful  construction  of  "the 
woodpecker  with  its  feet,  tail,  beak  and  tongue  so  admirably 
adapted  to  catch  insects  under  the  bark  of  trees,"  was  one  of 
the  things  that  greatly  interested  Charles  Darwin  during  the 
thirty  years  that  he  was  gathering  the  facts  and  material  for 
that  great  work,  the  Origin  of  Species.  If  it  would  interest  so 
great  a  mind  as  his,  surely  then,  in  it  there  is  matter  for  us  to 
reflect  upon. 


90 


WHITE-BREASTED  NUTHATCH. 

(Sitta  carolinensis) 

Life-size. 


FORD,   CHICAGO 


CHAPTER  XLVIII. 


November  20 — November  26. 

THE  WHITE-BREASTED  NUTHATCH. 

Order — Passeres.  Suborder — Oscines. 

Family — Paridse.  Subfamily — Sittinae. 

Genus — Sitta.  Species — Sitta  carolinensis. 

Length— 5.25  to  6.15  ;  wing,  3.50  to'375  ;  tail,  1.95  to  2.20. 
Permanent  resident. 

"Do  you  know  the  pretty  nuthatch  in  his  suit  of  ashen  blue, 

With  his  dainty  bib  of  white  and  his  coat  of  modest  brown? 

You  may  hear  him  sing,  sometimes,  though  his  notes  are  harsh  and  few 

But  you'll  know  him  when  you  see  him  by  the  black  upon  his  crown." 

The  family  Paridae  is  composed  of  about  one  hundred 
members  and  these  are  distributed  throughout  the  temperate 
portions  of  the  northern  hemisphere.  It  is  divided  into  two 
subfamilies,  namely  Sittinae,  composed  of  the  nuthatches,  and 
Parinae,  composed  of  the  chickadees.  There  are  about  twenty 
species  of  the  nuthatches.  These  are  small,  active,  restless, 
creeping,  short-tailed,  long-winged  birds,  marked  with  white, 
black  and  brown  colors.  They  derive  their  name  from  the 
habit  of  wedging  nuts  into  crevices  of  the  bark,  and  then  hack- 
ing or  hammering  away  with  the  bill  till  the  shell  is  broken. 
These  nuts,  however,  form  only  a  small  portion  of  their  food ; 
generally  they  are  insect  eaters.  The  white-breasted  nuthatch 
is  sometimes  called  the  white-bellied  nuthatch,  Carolina  nut- 
hatch, tomtit,  tree-mouse,  and  devil  downhead. 

271 


272  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

The  bill  of  this  bird  is  black,  long  and  sharp  pointed  like 
that  of  the  woodpecker  family  and  well  adapted  to  the  work  of 
taking  from  the  rough  bark  crevices  of  the  trees  the  insects 
and  their  larvae  upon  which  they  feed,  and  to  making  excava- 
tions for  their  nests ;  iris  of  the  eye  brown ;  general  color  above 
of  an  ashy  blue,  with  top  of  head  and  neck  black ;  wings  edged 
with  black  which  fades  to  brown ;  tail  nearly  even  at  the  end 
the  two  middle  feathers  slate  color,  the  others  black,  tipped 
with  slate,  and  crossed  diagonally  with  a  streak  of  white : 
sides  of  the  head  and  most  of  the  underparts  of  the  body  are 
white,  and  this  gives  to  the  bird  its  distinguishing  name ;  legs 
and  feet  dull  blue.  The  female  differs  from  the  male  in  hav- 
ing the  head  rather  darker,  and  the  line  through  the  eye  less 
conspicuous.  Unlike  the  woodpeckers,  they  have  but  one  hind- 
er toe  instead  of  two,  and  the  tail  feathers  are  without  termi- 
nal spines,  and  are  not  used  for  support  when  working  in  the 
boles  of  trees. 

The  white-breasted  nuthatch  is  a  resident  throughout  its 
range,  which  extends  throughout  Eastern  North  America 
northward  from  Georgia  and  Texas  to  New  Brunswick,  On- 
tario and  Minnesota  and  west  to  Kansas.  It  breeds  through- 
out its  range.  The  breeding  season  begins  about  the  middle 
of  April,  and  frequently  two  broods  are  reared  in  a  season. 
The  nest  may  be  found  in  the  natural  cavity  of  a  tree,  an  ex- 
cavation made  by  it  in  a  decayed  stump  or  tree  or  in  the  aban- 
doned hole  of  a  woodpecker,  from  the  ground  up  to  a  height 
of  sixty  feet,  and  is  made  of  feathers,  leaves  and  hair.  The 
eggs,  numbering  from  five  to  ten,  are  dull  white,  evenly  spot- 
ted with  brown  and  lavender  at  the  larger  end. 

The  nuthatch  is  a  bold,  active  and  familiar  bird,  and  is  gen- 
erally found  in  the  depths  of  the  woods.  Sometimes  they  make 
their  homes  in  our  orchards.  At  Somerleaze  a  pair  of  them 
are  frequent  visitors  to  the  trees  upon  our  lawn,  and  especially 
the  large  wild  cherry  that  stands  in  front  of  the  veranda.  I 
always  know  when  they  are  making  us  a  visit  by  their  content- 
ed call,  which  to  me  sounds  like  a  grunt  and  is  interpreted 
by  the  words  "uh-uh-uh"  or  "cuh-cuh-cuh."  As  Mr.  Baskett 
says,  his  "arrival  is  sudden  and  seems  often  distinguished  by 
turning  a  somersault  before  alighting,  head  downward,  on 


The  White-Breasted  Nuthatch  273 

the  tree  trunk,  as  if  he  had  changed  his  mind  so  suddenly 
about  alighting  that  it  unbalanced  him."  It  is  said  that  they 
sleep  clinging  to  a  tree  with  their  heads  in  this  position. 
July  8,  1904,  I  saw  one  clinging  to  the  underneath  side  of  a 
horizontal  limb  with  his  back  to  the  ground.  Truly  he  may 
be  called  the  "upside  down  bird."  How  beautifully  Edith  M. 
Thomas  describes  him  in  her  poem,  "To  a  Nuthatch,"  when 
she  says : 

"Shrewd  little  hunter  of  woods  all  gray, 
Whom  I  meet  on  my  walk  of  a  winter  day, 
You're  busy  inspecting  each  cranny  and  hole 
In  the  ragged  bark  of  yon  hickory  bole; 
You  intent  on  your  task,  and  I  on  the  law 
Of  your  wonderful  head  and  gymnastic  claw 

"The  woodpecker  well  may  despair  his  feat — 
Only  the  fly  with  you  can  compete! 
So  much  is  clear;  but  I  fain  would  know 
How  you  can  so  reckless  and  fearless  go, 
Head  upward,  head  downward,  all  one  to  you, 
Zenith  and  nadir,  the  same  to  your  view." 

The  nuthatches  are  beneficial  birds  and  should  be  protected. 
Professor  King  examined  twenty-five  specimens  and  found 
that  fourteen  had  eaten  beetles,  while  others  had  eaten  ants, 
caterpillars,  grubs,  spiders  and  a  crysalis,  a  few  toadstools 
and  acorns,  and  a  small  quantity  of  corn.  They  destroy  im- 
mense numbers  of  the  eggs  of  injurious  insects  which  have 
been  deposited  in  the  crevices  and  under  the  bark  of  trees. 
There  are  times  when  the  trees  are  incased  in  ice,  and  the  birds 
which  obtain  their  food  in  this  way  can  not  get  it.  At  such 
times  they  are  driven  by  necessity  into  our  gardens  and  lawns 
in  search  of  food.  We  should  then  come  to  their  rescue,  and 
firmly  fasten  pieces  of  suet  and  other  scraps  of  meat  to  the 
limbs  of  the  trees.  By  so  doing  we  will  do  them  and  ourselves 
a  service,  and  we  will  have  the  companionship  of  these  inter- 
esting little  friends  of  ours.  Professor  Sanderson,  who  made 
a  special  study  of  them  during  the  winter,  says  that  the  larger 
proportion  of  their  food  was  composed  of  seeds,  which  grad- 
ually decreased  as  the  insect  life  became  more  abundant.  In  the 
spring  nearly  eighty  per  cent,  of  their  food  consisted  of  in- 
sects, chiefly  adults. 


233 


TUFTED  TITMOUSE. 
(Parus  bicolor). 
About  Life-size. 


COPYRIGHT    1900,    BV   A.    w.    MUMFORO,  CHICAGO 


CHAPTER  XLIX. 


November  27 — December  3. 

THE  TUFTED  TITMOUSE. 

Order — Passeres.  Suborder — Oscines. 

Family — Paridae.  Subfamily — Parinae. 

Genus — Parus.  Species — Parus  bicolor. 

Length^- 5.65  to  6.50;  wing,  3.05  to  3.45;  tail,  2.80  to  3.15. 
Permanent  resident. 

"When  the  tardy  sun,  in  winter, 
Briefly  shines — a  blossom  hunter — 
To  a  tune,  first  sweet  then  sweeter, 
Sings  the  Titmouse:  'Peter,  Peter!' 
And  when  maple  sap  is  falling, 
Then  he  magnifies  his  calling, 
As  in  clearer  notes  repeats  he: 
'Peter,  Peter,  te,  te,  te,  te." 

The  subfamily  Parinse,  of  which  the  tufted  titmouse  is  a 
member,  contains  about  seventy-five  species.  Of  these  thir- 
teen belong  to  North  America.  The  range  of  the  tufted  tit- 
mouse extends  throughout  the  eastern  United  States,  north  to 
the  Connecticut  valley  and  southern  Michigan  and  west  to 
central  Nebraska  and  Texas.  Comparatively  few  of  them  are 
found  in  New  England,  and  this  perhaps  accounts  for  the  fact 
that  not  much  has  been  written  about  them  in  the  east.  In 
some  of  the  books  no  mention  is  made  of  them.  They  are  ir- 
regular migrants.  Most  of  them  remain  throughout  the  year 
when  they  have  taken  up  their  abode.  They  mate  in  April 

275 


276  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

and  May  and  breed  until  midsummer.  They  nest  in  wood- 
pecker and  knot  holes  and  other  cavities,  generally  five  to 
thirty  feet  from  the  ground. 

"Then  to  some  tall  tree's  bole,  hollow, 
If  his  flight  your  eyes  but  follow, 
There,  the  curious  crowd  evading, 
You  may  find  his  partner  brooding 
Eggs  with  thin  shells,  tinted,  creamy, 
Lilac,  rufous,  hinting  dreamy 
Forethought  of  the  life  abiding, 
Songless  yet,  within  them  abiding." 

"And,  forsaking  each  great  singer, 

If  you'll  for  a  moment  linger 

With  your  thoughts  on  him,  you'll  hear  him 

Warbling  to  the  wifey  near  him: 

'Peter,  Peter!  who  is  neater, 

Prettier,  wiser  or  discreeter, 

Than  you  are  dear  heart?    I  greet  ye: 

Peter,  Peter,  te,  te,  te,  te!'" 

Some  of  the  names  of  the  tufted  titmouse  are  crested  tit- 
mouse, crested  tomtit,  Peter-peter,  and  sugar  bird.  The  adult 
male  and  female  are  alike  in  size,  contour,  color  and  appear- 
ance. Both  have  conspicuous  crests  and  a  bill  which  is  black  ; 
tongue  very  short,  truncate  and  ending  with  three  or  four 
sharp  points ;  eye  dark  hazel ;  lores  white ;  gray  above,  whit- 
ish below  with  sides  of  reddish  brown ;  wing  feathers  relieved 
with  dusky  on  their  inner  vanes;  tail  a  little  forked,  consid- 
erably concave  below,  and  of  the  same  color  as  the  back. 

Their  food  consists  entirely  of  insects,  their  eggs  and 
larvae,  and  for  this  reason  they  are  of  our  most  useful  birds. 
At  Somerleaze  they  have  shown  themselves  to  be  very  busy 
workers  in  our  orchard  and  I  have  been  much  interested  in 
watching  them  going  over  our  elms  for  insects  and  worms  on 
the  leaves.  In  doing  this  they  catch  a  limb  with  their  feet 
and  swing  with  their  heads  downward,  so  as  to  be  able  to  in- 
spect the  under  side  of  the  leaves.  One  Sunday  afternoon  in 
1900  a  pair  of  them  brought  their  young  ones  to  the  trees  on 
our  front  lawn  and  this  gave  me  an  excellent  opportunity  to 
observe  them  from  the  veranda  with  a  glass.  The  young  ones 


The  Tufted  Titmouse  277 

seemed  larger  than  their  parents,  and  such  voracious  appe- 
tites as  they  did  have !  The  parents  worked  faithfully  all  that 
afternoon,  and  did  nothing  but  feed  their  hungry  progeny. 
One  of  the  trees  was  the  very  large  wild  cherry  and  in  it  was 
a  nest  of  tent  caterpillars.  The  titmice  discovered  it,  at- 
tacked it,  and  destroyed  -every  caterpillar  in  it.  It  was  inter- 
esting to  watch  them  do  it.  They  would  fly  to  the  nest,  catch 
a  caterpillar  and  fly  with  it  to  a  limb  close  by,  mascerate  it, 
and  then  fly  to  one  of  their  young  and  give  the  caterpillar  to 
it.  During  that  afternoon  I  think  they  went  over  every  tree 
on  the  lawn,  and  there  were  many  of  them,  hunting  for  in- 
sects and  worms  for  their  young  ones. 

Mr.  Baskett  in  The  Story  of  the  Birds  says  that  "In  the 
old  days  when  smokehouses  of  the  rural  regions  were  of  logs 
unchinked,  these  little  fellows  dug  into  the  hams  and  mid- 
dlings, and  the  crested  tit  is  especially  known  as  the  'meat 
eater'  among  some  of  the  southern  folk."  In  the  country,  at 
my  father's  log  cabin  home,  was  one  of  those  unchinked 
log  smoke-houses,  and  how  well  do  I  remember  when  the  cold 
winter  days  came  how  the  titmice  would  visit  it.  And  this  is 
suggestive.  Now  that  the  old  smokehouses  have  disappeared 
why  not  put  out  some  scraps  of  meat  for  the  birds  in  winter, 
when  the  insects  and  worms  are  scarce  and  hard  to  find? 

One  who  has  not  been  reared  in  the  country  and  has  not 
enjoyed  the  many  pleasures  of  sugar  making,  is  without  some 
of  the  things  which  help  to  make  the  after  memories  of  life 
most  delightful.  It  is  in  sugar  making  time  that  everything 
is  opening  into  new  life.  Spring  is  getting  ready  to  put  on 
the  green  that  makes  May  and  June  the  most  delightful 
months  of  the  year.  As  to  this  conclusion,  some  may  differ 
with  me,  giving  the  preference  to  September  and  October.  To 
me  the  one  speaks  of  fresh  life  and  budding  youth ;  the  other 
of  old  age,  decay  and  death.  It  is  in  spring,  in  the  language 
of  the  Psalmist,  that  we  have  "showers  that  water  the  earth." 
And  who  has  not  enjoyed  these  showers?  It  is  at  this  time 
that  the  drops  of  water  falling  into  the  pools  and  rivulets 
make  air  globules  like  halves  of  soap  bubbles,  arid  our  shad- 
ows are  reflected  mirror-like  in  the  water.  It  is  at  this  time 
of  the  year  that  the  drying  leaves  rustle  as  we  walk  through 


278  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

them  gathering-  the  sugar  water.  And  how  delightful  the 
memory  of  the  neighborhood  parties  at  night  about  the  fur- 
nace of  the  sugar  camp  from  which  the  stirring  off  was  be- 
ing made  for  the  wax  pulling  that  was  to  follow.  It  is  in 
sugar  making  time  that  we  as  children  go  hunting  for  that 
delicious  bulbous  edible,  the  turkey  pea  or  pepper  and  salt. 
Among  the  plants  it  is  the  pretty  little  harbinger  of  spring. 
It  is  in  sugar  making  time  that  the  tufted  titmouse  is  in  full 
song.  It  is  then,  as  Mr.  Basket  tells  us,  that  his  song  "is  that 
sugary  sap-rising  call  to  Teter-peter-peter'  to  get  out  his 
spiles  and  water  troughs."  It  is  then  that  their  clear,  loud 
whistle  of  "peto-peto-peto"  may  be  heard  at  Buzzard's  Roost 
for  we  have  many  of  them  there.  It  is  then, 

"When  summer's  birds  are  bringing 

Their  clear  concerted  singing, 
Singing  gladder,  gladder,  gladder  in  their  glees; 

When  finches  and  the  thrushes 

Make  vocal  all  the  bushes, 
And  the  lark  his  note  of  morning  welcome  frees — 

I  hear  no  meter  sweeter 

Than  'Peter — Peter — Peter,' 
That  the  Peter-bird  is  singing  in  the  trees." 

These  delightful  birds  are  very  inquisitive  and  sociable. 
They  rather  enjoy  the  company  of  man.  At  Somerleaze  an 
elm  tree  stands  so  close  to  the  house  that  the  limbs  almost 
overhang  the  back  porch.  Here  I  have  frequently  sat  in  the 
afternoon  and  whistled  to  the  titmice  to  come.  They  would  be 
over  in  our  orchard,  and  hearing  my  whistle,  would  come  in 
answer  to  it,  getting  as  near  to  me  as  the  closest  limbs  would 
permit,  and  look  inquiringly  at  me,  as  much  as  to  say,  "Here 
we  are,  what  do  you  want  with  us?"  And  then  I  wished  that 
I  could  tell  them  that  I  wanted  their  companionship.  I  some- 
times feel  that  it  is  a  hardship  that  all  animal  life  cannot  com- 
municate with  each  other.  Would  there  not  be  less  wrong 
inflicted  then?  Would  a  man  kill  a  bird  if  it  could  say,  "Sir, 
will  you  not  spare  my  life?  Have  I  done  you  any  wrong? 
Have  I  not  been  your  friend?" 


163 


BROWN  CREEPER. 

(Certhia  familiaris  americana) 
Life-size. 


CHAPTER  L. 


December  A — December  10. 

THE  BROWN  CREEPER. 

Order — Passeres.  Suborder — Oscines. 

Family — Certhdidae.  Genus — Certhia. 

Species — Certhia  familiaris  americana. 
Length — 5.00  to  5.75  ;  wing,  2.40  to  2.70 ;  tail,  2.30  to  2.90. 
Migration — North,  April ;  south,  September. 

"The  little  brown  creeper  climbs  up  the  tree, 
Not   stopping  to  talk  with  the  chickadee-dee, 

And  clinging  on  with  his  dear  little  feet, 
He  looks  inexpressibly  cunning  and  sweet. 

We  listen  with  joy  to  the  cheerful  note 
Coming  from  such  a  tiny  throat." 

The  family  Certhidse,  composed  of  the  creepers,  has  in  it 
about  twelve  species.  Of  these  the  brown  creeper  is  the  only 
one  found  in  America.  It  is  an  expert  tree  climber  and  par- 
tial to  the  tree  tops.  In  appearance  the  sexes  are  alike.  Its 
bill  is  long,  slender,  curved,  compressed  at  the  sides,  and  acute 
at  the  tip ;  the  wings  are  moderate  and  rounded ;  the  tail  is 
long  and  graduated  with  the  ends  of  the  feathers  slightly 
curved  and,  like  that  of  the  woodpecker,  is  used  for  a  support, 
as  is  shown  by  the  illustration ;  the  toes  are  long  and  slender 
of  the  body  is  of  a  mottled  color  of  brown  and  white,  and  buff 
of  the  body  is  of  a  mottled  color  of  brown  and  white  and  buff 
the  tail  is  a  light  buff,  and  the  under  parts  are  white  without 
any  marks. 

The  brown  creeper  is  an  active,  nervous  little  creature, 
which  flits  rapidly  from  one  tree  to  another,  generally  alight- 

279 


280  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

ing  upon  the  trunk  near  the  base,  then  running  spirally  up- 
ward, and  after  a  hurried  inspection  of  it  for  its  food,  wings 
its  way  to  another.  It  never  backs  down  the  bole  of  a  tree  as 
woodpeckers  do,  nor  does  it  work  with  its  head  down  as  the 
nuthatches  do.  It  is  a  difficult  bird  to  find  because  of  the  fact 
that  the  color  of  its  back  closely  resembles  the  bark  of  the 
tree,  and  when  about  to  be  discovered  it  crouches  closely  to  it. 
It  is  a  fine  example  of  protective  coloration.  It  is  very  hardy 
and  lives  sumptuously  through  the  winter.  One  who  is  very 
fond  of  the  little  creatures  has  said :  "If  the  swallows  were 
to  visit  us  at  this  time  they  would  undoubtedly  perish,  for 
the  air  in  winter  is  almost  clear  of  insect  life ;  but  the  little 
creeper  can  live  in  ease  when  the  sun  is  at  Capricorn,  just 
because  he  can  climb  so  dexterously,  for  the  bark  of  trees 
abounds  with  insects,  and  more  particularly  their  eggs  and 
larvae,  which  lie  torpid  until  called  into  life  by  the  genial 
presence  of  the  vernal  sun." 

Its  habits  are  interestingly  described  by  Mr.  Garret  New- 
kirk  in  Bird  Lore  in  his  poem,  "The  Little  Brown  Creeper." 
He  makes  it  say : 

"Although  I  am  a  bird,  I  give  you  my  word 

That  seldom  you'll  know  me  to  fly; 
For  I  have  a  notion  about  locomotion, 

The  little  Brown  Creeper  am  I, 

Dear  little  Brown  Creeper  am  I. 

"Begin-ning  below,  I  search  as  I  go 

The  trunk  and  the  limbs  of  a  tree, 
For  a  fly  or  a  slug,  a  beetle  or  a  bug; 

They're  better  than  candy  for  me, 

Far   better  than  candy  for   me. 

"When  people  are  nigh  I'm  apt  to  be  shy, 

And  say  to  myself,  'I  will  hide,' 
Continue  my  creeping,  but  carefully  keeping 

Away  on  the  opposite  side, 

Well  around  on  the  opposite  side. 

"Yet  sometimes   I  peak  while  I   play  hide  and  seek, 

If  you're  nice,  I  shall  wish  to  see  you; 
I'll  make  a  faint  sound  and  come  quite  around 

And  creep  like  a  mouse  in  full  view 

Very  much  like  a  mouse  in  full  view." 


The  Brown  Creeper  281 

The  brown  creeper  is  a  migrant  whose  range  extends  from 
the  Gulf  States  north  into  Canada.  It  goes  north  in  April 
and  returns  in  September.  It  breeds  in  the  northern  part  of 
its  range,  and  the  breeding  season  begins  about  the  middle  of 
May.  Its  nest  is  built  in  crevices  where  the  bark  has  start- 
ed from  a  dead  tree  and  is  built  of  felted  material,  soft  feathers, 
moss,  twigs  and  spider  cocoons.  The  eggs,  six  to  eight  in 
number,  are  of  a  yellowish  white  color,  with  irregular  purplish 
dots,  especially  at  the  larger  end. 

In  the  winter  they  come  into  our  towns  and  cities,  and 
may  be  seen  doing  their  good  work  on  the  boles  of  the  trees. 
I  have  seen  them  quite  frequently  in  my  native  city  and  with 
interest  have  watched  them  making  their  spiral  ascent  of  the 
trees  in  our  parks.  In  the  spring,  before  departing  north  to 
.breed,  they  often  sing  their  little  song  to  us,  which,  however, 
we  are  lucky  to  hear.  Of  their  song  at  breeding  time,  Mr.  Wil- 
liam Brewster  says :  "Their  notes  are  varied  and  warbling, 
and  somewhat  confused ;  some  of  them  are  loud,  powerful  and 
unsurpassingly  sweet,  others  are  more  feeble  and  plaintive. 
Their  song  usually  ends  with  their  accustomed  cry,  which 
may  be  represented  by  'cree-cree-cre-ep.' " 

Their  principal  food  consists  of  ants,  larvae  and  small 
insects  and  particularly  those  species  which  affect  the  trunks 
of  our  trees.  Among  other  things  they  have  been  found  to 
have  eaten  beetles,  bugs,  spiders,  pine  seeds,  fungi  and  parti- 
cles of  lichens. 


BOB- WHITE. 
%  Life-size. 


Copyrighted  by 
Nature  Study  I'ub.  Co.,  181)8,  C]IK-:IKI>. 


CHAPTER  LI. 


December  11 — December  17. 

THE  BOB  WHITE. 

Order — Gallinse.  Suborder — Phasiani. 

Family — Tetraonidae.  Subfamily — Odontophorinse. 

Genus — Colinus.  Species — Colinus  virginianus. 

Length — 9.50  to  10.75  \  wing,  4.30  to  4.70 ;  tail,  2.40  to  2.90. 
Permanent  resident. 

"I  see  him  on  the  zig  zag  rail, 

The  cheery  little  fellow! 
While   purple  leaves  are  hurling   down, 

And   scarlet  brown   and   yellow. 
I  hear  him  when  the  air  is  full 

Of  snow-down  of  the  thistle; 
All  in  his  speckled  jacket  trim, 

'Bob  White!  Bob  White!'  is  his  whistle." 

The  family  Tetraonidae  has  in  it  about  two  hundred  spe- 
cies and  is  composed  of  the  grouse,  pheasants,  partridges, 
quails  and  Bob-whites.  It  is  subdivided  into  three  sub-fami- 
lies as  follows:  (1)  Perdicinae,  containing  the  true  quails  and 
partridges  of  the  old  world ;  (2)  Odontophoringe,  the  Bob- 
whites  and  the  so-called  "quails"  and  "partridges"  of  the  new 
world ;  and  (3)  Tetraonidae,  the  grouse,  with  representatives 
in  the  northern  parts  of  both  hemispheres.  According  to 
Chapman,  "All  the  tetraonidae  are  ground-inhabiting  birds, 
and  their  plumage  of  blended  browns,  buffs  and  grays  brings 
them  into  such  close  harmony  with  their  surroundings  that, 

283 


284  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

as  a  rule,  we  are  unaware  of  the  presence  of  one  of  these  birds 
until,  with  a  whirring  of  short,  stiff  rounded  wings  it  springs 
from  the  ground  at  our  feet.  It  is  this  habit  of  'lying  close/ 
as  sportsmen  term  it,  in  connection  with  their  excellent  flesh, 
which  makes  the  members  of  this  family  the  favorites  of  the 
hunter  and  epicure  and  only  the  most  stringent  protective 
measures  will  prevent  their  extinction  as  their  haunts  become 
settled." 

The  name  Bob-white  is  derived  from  the  familiar  utter- 
ance of  the  bird.  In  the  north  and  west  it  is  called  the  quail 
and  in  the  south  the  partridge.  The  name  quail  properly 
belongs  to  a  smaller  migratory  bird  of  a  different  genus,  found 
in  the  old  world,  the  quail  of  the  Bible  story;  while  partridge 
in  New  England  universally  applies  to  the  ruffed-grouse,  is 
strictly  the  name  of  another  old  world  genus,  though  also 
used  to  designate  the  group  to  which  Bob-whites,  quail,  part- 
ridges and  other  closely  related  birds  belong. 

The  bill  of  the  adult  Bob-white  is  stout,  hen-like  and 
black ;  eye,  dark  hazel ;  chin,  throat,  forehead  and  line  through 
the  eyes  and  along  the  sides  of  the  neck,  white ;  black  band 
across  the  top  of  the  head,  extending  backward  on  the  sides, 
and  from  the  bill  below  the  eyes,  crossing  on  the  lower  part  of 
the  throat;  back,  scapulars  and  lesser  coverts,  red  brown,  in- 
termixed with  ash  and  sprinkled  with  black;  wings  plain 
dusky;  tail  ash,  sprinkled  with  reddish  brown;  lower  parts  of 
the  breast  and  belly  pale  yellowish  white ;  legs  very  pale  ash. 
The  color  of  the  adult  female  is  duller,  black  band  on  the 
breast  indistinct,  and  the  throat  is  buff  instead  of  white. 

The  range  of  the  Bob-whites  extends  north  through  the 
eastern  United  States  and  southern  Ontario,  Canada ;  west  to 
eastern  Minnesota,  Nebraska,  Kansas,  Indian  Territory  and 
eastern  Texas;  and  south  to  Georgia,  Alabama  and  the  other 
Gulf  States.  It  is  one  of  the  most  widely  distributed  of  our 
game  birds.  It  is  found  everywhere,  more  or  less  abundantly 
in  suitable  places  within  the  United  States,  east  of  the  Mis- 
souri and  Mississippi  Rivers,  except  in  Florida,  where  it  is  re- 
placed by  the  Florida  Bob-white.  It  is  not  a  migrant.  Mr. 
Wells  W.  -Cooke  says  that  "Many  a  cardinal,  Carolina  wren 
and  Bob-white  rounds  out  its  whole  contented  life  within  ten 


The  Bob  White  285 


miles  of  its  birthplace."  While  this  is  true,  it  is  also  true  that 
in  the  autumn  Bob-whites  seem  possessed  with  a  desire  to 
migrate.  They  become  restless  and  bewildered.  Hunters 
say  they  are  crazy.  At  such  times  I  have  known  them  to 
come  into  the  city.  In  the  autumn  of  1903  I  whistled  to  one 
that  was  just  across  the  street  from  Elmwood  and  it  answered 
my  call  and  came  to  within  a  few  feet  of  where  I  was  stand- 
ing on  our  front  lawn ;  and  then,  I  remembered  the  lines  of 
Henry  T.  Stanton : 

"Ah,  I  hear  it,  and  I  see  it 

Sitting  on  the  rail. 
Is  it  real,  can  it  be  it, 

My  old  friend  the  quail? 
Out  of  season,  out  of  cover, 
Turned  a  migrant,  turned  a  rover, 

Sitting  boldly  in  my  sight, 

Calling:    'White— Bob  White! 
Bob-Bob  White — 
Bob  White?'" 

The  mating  season  commences  in  April  and  nidification 
begins  usually  about  the  first  of  May.  The  nest  is  always 
placed  upon  the  ground  and  is  a  very  simple  affair.  It  may  be 
found  alongside  a  patch  of  overhanging  weeds,  a  tall  bunch  of 
grass,  under  a  small  bush  or  in  a  briar  patch,  by  the  side  of  the 
fence.  One  at  Buzzard's  Roost  was  built  in  the  grass,  not 
more  than  ten  feet  from  the  road  where  we  were  constantly 
passing  by,  and  so  that  we  could  see  the  sitting  quail  and  she 
could  see  us.  The  female  builds  the  nest,  and  in  building  exca- 
vates a  saucer-shaped  cavity  in  the  ground  and  slightly  lines  it 
with  grasses  and  vegetable  trash.  Usually  the  nest  is  open, 
but  sometimes  it  is  roughly  arched.  In  it  are  laid  from  ten  to 
twenty  dull  white  ovate  eggs,  often  partially  stained  a  buffy 
yellow  by  contact  with  the  grass  on  which  they  lie.  Fifteen 
may  be  considered  a  fair  average,  but  as  many  as  thirty-seven 
eggs  have  been  found  in  a  nest. 

It  is  well  known  that  some  Bob-whites  are  polygamous 
and  it  is  believed  by  some  that  where  large  clutches  of  eggs 
are  found  in  a  nest  they  are  the  product  of  two  or  more  fe- 
males. In  his  Life  and  Immortality,  Mr.  Thomas  G.  Gentry 


286  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

says :  "Eighteen  days  are  required  for  their  hatching.    Where 
the  father  is  not  fortunate  enought  to  possess  a  harem  a  part 
of  the  work  devolves  upon  him,  while  the  mother  seeks  food 
and  recreation ;  but  where  there  are  several  females,  the  work 
is  divided  amicably  among  them,  each  sitting  about  half  a  day 
at  a  stretch,  then  calling  her  relief  with  a  low  note,  if  there 
be  only  two,  the  male  taking  no  part  in  the  labor  of  incubation 
whatever.     Should  the  family  be  larger,  two  females  will  sit 
side  by  side  on  the  eggs,  there  being  too  many  for  one  breast 
to  cover.     Meantime  the  husband  remains  close  by,  chirping 
encouragement  in  a  low  tone,  and  betime  making  the  field 
vocal  with  his  loud  clear  whistle."    I  find  that  there  is  a  diver- 
sity of  statement  among  authors  upon  this  subject.     Major 
Bendire  says :     "Incubation  lasts  about  twenty-four  days,  in 
which  duty  the  male  is  said  to  assist  at  times,  at  least."     Mr. 
Dugmore  says :     "Incubation  occupies  twenty-four  days,  both 
birds  assisting."    Miss  Merriman  says :  "The  bird's  domestic 
life  is  particularly  interesting  from  the  part  the  male  plays  in 
the  family,  helping  to  build  the  nest,  feeding  his  mate  on  the 
eggs,  and  in  case  of  death  brooding  in  her  place."    Mr.  Butler 
says:     "The  female  does  the  sitting  and  cares  for  the  family. 
Occasionally,     when  she  has  been  killed,  the  male  has  been 
known  to  assume  the  task  of  sitting  and  fulfilling  the  duties  of 
the  mate."     It  will  be  seen  that  it  is  hard  to  reconcile  these 
records.     Personally,  I  have  never  seen  the  male  taking  any 
part  in  the  nest  building  and  incubation,  but  I  have  seen  him 
taking  care  of  the  young  birds.    In  the  summer  of  1899,  while 
tramping  in  the  country,  I  came  close  upon  a  covey  of  them 
before  they  noticed  me.     As  quick  as  thought  the  old  bird,  a 
male,  gave  the  alarm  and  just  as  quick  the  little  ones  were 
gone  in  every  direction,  and  the  old  one  was  fluttering  away 
in  an  opposite  direction.     I  understood  his  trick,  and  paid  no 
attention  to  him,  but  tried  to  find  one  of  the  little  ones.     He 
observed  what  I  was  doing  and  flew  into  a  tree  near  by  and 
kept  up  his  warning  notes  to  the  hidden  ones.     They  heeded 
his  warnings   and  eluded   my  search   although   the   grass   in 
which  they  were  hidden  was  very  short. 

The  Bob-whites  are  ever  on  the  alert  for  the  approach  of 
an   enemy — and   they   have   many — man,   perhaps   being   the 


The  Bob  White  287 


worst.  As  a  rule,  they  do  not  depend  upon  flight  as  a  protec- 
tion from  danger,  but  rather  upon  their  protective  coloring. 
If,  however,  flight  becomes  necessary,  they  suddenly  spring 
into  the  air  with  a  whirr,  and  their  short  and  strongly  con- 
structed wings  enable  them  to  quickly  reach  their  highest 
speed.  They  do  not  fly  in  a  bunch,  but  scatter,  and  if  a  forest 
is  near  by  they  will  fly  into  it.  When  danger  has  passed  their 
leader  calls  them  together  again. 

Generally  they  do  not  walk  but  fly  to  their  roost  with  a 
low,  soft,  noiseless  flight,  so  that  their  enemies  may  not  hear 
or  track  them.  When  the  roost  is  reached,  their  manner  of 
adjusting  themselves  for  the  night  is  unique.  They  arrange 
themselves  in  a  circle,  with  their  tails  inward,  so  that  they 
touch  each  other,  and  with  heads  outward  every  way  for 
watching  and  for  easy  escape,  if  discovered  by  an  enemy. 
Think  of  having  to  live  such  a  life ! 

"The  close  covey  vexed  with  various  woes, 

While  sad  they  sit  their  anxious  mother  round, 

With  dismal  shade  the  closing  net  descends, 

Or  by  the  sudden  gun  they  flutter,  fall, 

And  vile  with  blood  is  stained  their  freckled  down." 

The  young  leave  the  nest  just  as  soon  as  they  are  out  of 
the  shell,  and  at  once  commence  their  good  work  of  destroying 
noxious  seeds  and  insects,  and  each  of  them  destroys  an  enor- 
mous amount  of  these.  How  cunning  the  little  fellows  are ! 
The  old  birds  remain  with  them  and  lead  them  to  where  the 
most  food  is  to  be  obtained,  and  are  ever  on  the  watch  for  an 
enemy. 

"Under  the  alders,  along  the  brooks, 

Under  the  hemlocks,  along  the  hills, 
Spreading  their  plumage  with  furtive  looks, 

Daintily  pecking  the  leaves  at  will; 
Whirr!  and  they  flit  from  the  startled  sight, 
And  the  forest  is  silent,  the  air  is  still." 

The  Department  of  Agriculture  at  Washington  has  had 
a  careful  study  made  of  the  economic  value  of  the  Bob-white. 
In  his  exhaustive  report  to  the  Department,  Dr.  Sylvester  D. 
Judd  says,  "The  results  obtained  may  be  thus  summed  up. 
The  Bob-white  is  probably  the  most  useful  abundant  species 


288  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

on  the  farm.  It  is  one  of  the  most  nearly  omniverous  birds, 
consuming  large  quantities  of  weed  seeds,  and  destroying 
many  of  the  worst  insect  pests  with  which  the  farmer  has  to 
contend.  It  does  not  injure  grain,  fruit,  or  any  other  crop.  * 
*  *  A  careful  computation  of  the  total  amount  of  weed  seed 
the  Bob-white  is  capable  of  destroying  is  surprising  in  the 
magnitude  of  the  result.  In  the  State  of  Virginia  it  is  safe  to 
assume  that  from  September  1  to  April  30,  the  season  when 
the  largest  proportion  of  weed  seed  is  consumed  by  birds, 
there  are  four  Bob-whites  to  the  square  mile,  or  169,800  in 
the  entire  State.  The  crop  of  each  of  these  birds  will  hold 
half  an  ounce  of  seed,  and  as  at  each  of  the  two  daily  meals 
weed  seeds  constitute  at  least  half  the  contents  of  the  crop, 
or  a  quarter  of  an  ounce,  a  half  ounce  daily  is  certainly  con- 
sumed by  each  bird.  On  this  very  conservative  basis  the 
total  consumption  of  weed  seeds  by  Bob-whites  from  Septem- 
ber 1  to  April  30  in  Virginia  amounts  to  573  tons.  *  *  * 
Furthermore,  the  proportion  of  injurious  insects  habitually 
eaten  by  the  Bob-white  makes  its  services  as  a  destroyer  of 
insects  more  valuable  than  those  of  many  birds  whose  per- 
centage of  insect  food,  though  greater,  includes  a  smaller  pro- 
portion of  injurious  species.  Conspicious  among  the  pests 
which  the  Bob-white  destroys  are  the  potato  beetle,  the  twelve 
spotted  cucumber  beetle,  the  bean-leaf  beetle,  the  squash  lady- 
bird, wire  worms  and  their  beetles,  May-beetles,  such  weevils 
as  the  corn-hill  bug,  the  imbricated  snout-beetle,  the  clover 
leaf  weevil,  and  the  Mexican  cotton-ball  weevil,  the  striped 
garden  caterpillar,  the  army  worm,  the  cotton  worm,  the  boll 
worm,  various  species  of  cut  worms,  the  corn-louse  ant,  the 
red-legged  grasshopper,  the  Rocky  Mountain  locust,  and  the 
chinch  bug."  And  yet,  notwithstanding  this  splendid  record 
of  the  usefulness  of  the  Bob-whites  no  birds  are  more  persist- 
ently persecuted  and  killed  than  are  they. 

"The  thundering  guns  are  heard  on  every  side, 
The  wounded  coveys,  reeling,  scatter  wide; 
The  feathered  field  mates,  bound   by  nature's  tie, 
See  mothers,  children  in  one  carnage  lie." 


CHAPTER  LII. 


December  17 — December  23. 

THE  JUNCO. 

Order — Passeres.  Suborder — Oscines. 

Family — Fringillidae.  Genus — Junco. 

Species — Junco  hyemalis. 

Length — 6.00  to  7.00;  wing,  3.15  to  3.65 ;  tail,  3.00  to  3.29. 
Migration — North,  April  1-30;  south,  September  2o-October  20. 

"On  twinkling  wings  they  eddy  past 

At  home  amid  the  drifting, 
Or  seek  the  hills  and  weedy  fields 

Where  fast  the   snow  is  sifting. 
Their  coats  are  dappled  white  and  brown — 

Like  fields  in  winter  weather, 
But,  on  the  azure  sky  they  float 
Like  snowflakes  knit  together." 

The  j  uncos  belong  to  the  family  Fringillidae  and  are  full 
cousins  of  the  sparrow.  Fifteen  species,  having  a  habitation 
in  North  America,  have  been  listed.  Most  of  them  are  birds 
of  the  far  northern  and  northwestern  parts  of  the  continent. 
The  slate-colored  junco,  junco  hyemalis,  sometimes  called  the 
slate-colored  snowbird  and  snowbird,  is  a  migrant  whose  range 
extends  from  the  Gulf  States  northward  to  Labrador,  and 
western  shores  of  Hudson  Bay,  and  through  the  interior  to  the 
Arctic  coast  and  westward  to  the  valleys  of  the  Yukon  and. 
Kowak  rivers  in  Alaska.  The  Rocky  Mountains  seem  to  be  its 
western  limit.  When  it  comes  south  its  presence  is  usually  an- 

289 


Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 


nounced  by  a  sharp  "tchip,"  followed  by  a  rapid  chipping  as  it 
flies. 

The  bill  of  the  adult  male  junco  is  pinkish  or  lilaceous 
white;  the  iris  dark  reddish  brown  or  claret  blue;  the  head, 
neck,  chest,  upper  breast,  sides,  flanks  and  upper  parts  are 
a  plain  slate-color;  darkest  on  the  head,  which  is  sometimes 
almost  black  and  marked  like  a  cowl  ;  six  middle  tail  feathers, 
slate-blackish,  edged  with  slate-grayish  ;  two  outermost  tail 
feathers  white,  the  third  white  and  dusky;  the  lower  breast, 
abdomen,  anal  region  and  under  tail  coverts  white  ;  tarsi  light 
brownish,  toes  usually  darker.  The  adult  female  is  similar  to 
the  male,  except  that  the  slate-color  is  lighter.  Mr.  Parkhurst 
suggestively  describes  the  bird  as  "Leaden  skies  above  ;  snow 

below." 

"When  snow,  like  silence  visible, 

Hath  hushed  the  summer  bird, 
Thy  voice,  a  never  frozen  rill 

Of  melody,  is  heard. 
But  when  from  winter's  lethargy 

The  buds  begin  to  blow, 
Thy  voice  is  mute,  and  suddenly 

Thou  vanishest  like  the  snow." 

In  the  springtime  before  leaving  us  for  its  home  in  the 
far  north  it  has,  as  Mr.  Bicknell  describes  it,  "a  crisp  call-note, 
a  simple  trill,  and  a  faint,  whispered  warble,  usually  much 
broken,  but  not  without  sweetness."  Some  attention  is 
given  to  mating  before  the  juncos  leave  us  in  April.  They 
nest  in  the  mountains  of  northern  Pennsylvania,  New  York. 
and  New  England,  and  throughout  their  range,  from  Minne- 
sota northward.  Nest  building  is  begun  during  the  first  half 
of  May.  They  select  a  variety  of  places  for  nesting  sites,  such 
as  the  upturned  roots  of  trees,  crevices  in  banks,  under  the 
sides  of  logs  and  stumps,  a  cavity  under  broken  sod,  or  in  the 
shelter  of  grass  or  other  vegetation.  The  nest  is  made  of  dry 
grasses,  moss  and  rootlets,  lined  with  hair  or  other  fine  ma- 
terial. Three  to  five  whitish  eggs,  speckled  with  reddish 
brown  constitute  a  set.  I  am  without  data  and  information 
as  to  the  incubation  habits  of  the  junco  but  surmise  that  they 
are  much  like  those  of  the  sparrows  of  which  family  it  is  a 
member. 


The  Junco  291 

The  juncos  feed  almost  exclusively  upon  the  seeds  of 
weeds,  and  this  places  them  among  our  most  useful  birds. 

"The  unknown  fields  are  their  preserves, 
Where  weeds  and  grasses  are  seeding; 

They  know  the  lure  of  distant  stacks 
Where  houseless  birds  are  feeding." 

In  describing  the  junco,  I  have  said  that  the  two  outer- 
most tail-feathers  are  white  and  the  third  white  and  dusky. 
The  illustration  accompanying  this  chapter  shows  this  to  be 
so.  Why  is  it  so?  Those  who  have  studied  the  question — 
Notably  Darwin — tell  us  that  these  white  feathers  and  like 
markings  of  birds  and  animals  are  signal  recognition  marks 
by  which  they  know  each  other  while  in  flight,  and  no  doubt, 
this  is  the  correct  answer  to  the  question.  A  reason  for  the 
answer  is  that  such  markings  are  usually  located  upon  the 
body  in  the  rear  and  so  that  they  can  be  seen  only  while  the 
bird  or  animal  is  in  flight.  Notably  is  this  so  of  the  flicker,  whose 
white  patch  is  above  the  tail  and  so  situated  that  when  the  bird  is 
not  in  flight  it  is  covered  by  the  wings.  Among  the  animals 
the  rabbit  whose  "cotton-tail"  is  seen  only  when  it  is  running, 
is  an  apt  illustration  and  proof  of  the  theory.  Of  these  mark- 
ings and  like  social  signs,  Mr.  Baskett  in  his  Story  of  the 
Birds  says,  "Certain  birds  have  a  whirring  flight  when  first 
flushed,  and  others  have  purposely  designed  wing  whistles,  as 
in  doves  and  woodcocks.  Others  incidentally  strike  their  wings 
together  over  their  backs  as  they  begin  to  fly.  Yet  more  vol- 
untary is  the  little  'chit'  or  back  talk  of  many  birds  as  they 
feed — accompanied  sometimes,  as  in  the  snowbirds,  by  the 
little  flit  of  the  white  tail  feathers — a  sort  of  'I-am-with-you' 
kind  of  signal  in  the  toil  for  daily  bread." 

With  us  the  juncos  are  very  sociable  and  are  found  in 
flocks.  In  my  childhood  days  many  of  them  came  to  our  wood- 
yard  and  were  fed  with  the  -domestic  fowls.  I  loved  them  then 
and  I  love  them  now.  I  am  not  sure  that  I  would  be  a  real 
bird  lover  but  for  having  had  their  companionship.  Fifteen 
acres  of  Buzzard's  Roost  is  Fall  Creek  bottom,  land,  and  sur- 
rounded with  timber  which  shelters  it  from  the  fierce  winds  of 
winter.  The  juncos  take  advantage  of  this  situation  and  many 


292  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

of  them  are  found  there  every  winter.  It  is  good  to  see  them 
and  watch  them  feeding.  I  have  been  out  there  to-day,  Feb- 
ruary 19,  1905,  to  see  them.  The  earth  is  covered  deep  with 
snow,  but  this  does  not  prevent  them  from  finding  something 
to  eat.  As  the  gardner  and  I  walked  over  the  bottom  I  noticed 
how  they  and  the  tree  sparrows  had  shaken  the  weed  seed 
from  the  stalks  on  the  snow  and  then  gathered  it  up.  Hun- 
dreds of  little  bird  tracks  under  the  weed  stalks  told  that  they 
had  been  there.  The  gardner  told  me  that  many  of  them  come 
to  the  barn  at  night  to  take  shelter  in  it  and  feed  with  the 
fowls.  This  pleased  me  much  and  I  encouraged  him  to  look 
after  them.  They  are  such  cheerful,  happy,  contented  and 
busy  little  creatures  that  I  can  not  help  but  love  them. 

"O  cheery  bird  of  winter  cold, 

I  bless  thy  every  feather; 
Thy  voice  brings  back  dear  boyhood  days 

When  we  were  gay  together." 


FROM  COL.  CHI.  AC»D.  SCIENCES. 

436 


TREE   SPARROW. 

(Spizella  monticola). 

About  Life-size. 


CHAPTER  LIII. 


December  24 — December  31. 

THE  TREE  SPARROW. 

Order — Passeres.  Suborder — Oscines. 

Family — Fringillidse.  Genus—  Spizella. 

Species — Spizella  monticola. 

Length — 6.00  to  6.50;  wing,  2.80  to  3.10;  tail,  2.60  to  3.90. 
Migration — North,  March  10- April  15;  south,  Oct.  2O-Nov.  20. 

"Blythe  wanderer  of  the  wintry  air, 
Now  here,  now  everywhere, 

Quick  drifting  to  and  fro, 
A  cheerful  life  devoid  of  care, 
A  shadow  on  the  snow." 

The  tree  sparrow  is  a  member  of  the  family  Fringillidse. 
There  are  two  species  of  them,  namely,  the  western  tree  spar- 
row, monticola  ochracea,  the  range  of  which  is  western  North 
America  east  to  the  Plains,  and  the  tree  sparrow,  Spizella 
monticola,  whose  range  extends  north  throughout  North 
America,  east  of  the  Plains  to  South  Carolina  and  the  Indian 
Territory  to  the  Artie  Ocean.  It  winters  from  North  Dakota, 
Northern  Michigan,  Ontario  and  New  England,  south.  They 
arrive  in  the  Middle  West  the  last  of  October  and  the  first  of 
November,  and  leave  the  last  of  March  and  the  first  of  April. 
They  very  much  resemble  the  chipping  sparrow,  but  are  larger 
and  handsomer,  and  are  never  found  with  us  in  the  summer. 

293 


294  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

Like  the  shrikes,  the  one  arrives  in  the  Middle  West  when  the 
other  is  departing  for  the  South,  and  returns  to  the  north 
when  the  other  is  returning  from  the  south.  It  comes  and  re- 
turns with  its  cousin,  the  junco,  and  frequents  sheltered  hol- 
lows, thickets,  and  hedgerows  near  to  springs  or  streams  of 
water.  Its  breeding  range  and  habits  of  incubation  seem  to 
be  imperfectly  known.  It  is  known,  however,  that  its  breed- 
ing range  extends  from  Maine  to  Labrador,  and  that  its  nest 
is  built  on  or  near  to  the  ground,  of  grass,  rootlets  and  hair, 
and  that  from  four  to  five  pale  green  eggs,  blotched  with 
various  shades  of  brown,  constitute  a  set. 

The  adult  male  and  female  tree  sparrow  are  alike  in  ap- 
pearance, except  that  the  female  is  the  smallest.  The  upper 
mandible  is  black  and  the  lower  yellow ;  iris  of  eye,  brown ; 
upper  part  of  the  head,  reddish-brown,  sometimes  slightly 
skirted  with  gray ;  from  the  nostril  over  the  eye  passes  a  white 
stripe,  fading  into  pale  ash  as  it  extends  back ;  sides  of  head 
and  neck,  ash  gray,  lighter  on  the  throat;  back  and  primaries, 
grayish  buffy  broadly  streaked  with  black ;  middle  and  greater 
wing  coverts  edged  with  rufous  and  tipped  with  white,  form- 
ing two  conspicious  bars ;  tail,  forked  and  dusky  gray ;  sides, 
flank  and  underneath  parts,  whitish  mixed  with  pale  brownish; 
legs  a  brownish  clay  color ;  feet  black. 

Mr.  Bicknell  says  they  have  two  call  notes,  the  customary 
"chip"  and  "a  low  double  note,  which  is  uttered  mainly  while 
the  birds  are  feeding,"  and  Mr.  Chapman  says,  "they  are  so- 
ciable birds,  with  apparently  the  best  of  dispositions.  They 
are  usually  found  in  small  companies,  each  member  of  which 
seems  to  have  something  to  say.  Watch  them  feeding  on  an 
old  weed  stalk  left  uncovered  by  the  snow.  It  bends  beneath 
the  weight  of  half  a  dozen  birds,  but,  far  from  attempting  to 
rob  one  another,  they  keep  up  a  conversational  chatter,  be- 
speaking the  utmost  good  fellowship.  'Too-la-it,  too-la-it,' 
each  one  calls,  and  I  have  only  to  remember  this  note  to  bring 
clearly  to  mind  a  bright  winter  morning  with  fresh  snow 
crystals  sparkling  in  the  sunshine  and  in  the  distance  a  tink- 
ling chorus  of  tree  sparrows  at  breakfast."  I  quote  this  para- 
graph at  length  because  it  seems  to  me  to  fit  well  with  a  late 
experience  of  my  own. 


The  Tree  Sparrow  295 

Saturday  night,  February  11,  1905,  the  thermometer  fell 
to  ten  degrees  below  zero  and  with  the  sudden  change  there 
was  a  very  heavy  snow  fall.  The  snow  clung  to  even  the 
smallest  twigs  of  the  trees,  bending  the  larger  and  lower 
limbs  almost  to  the  ground,  and  the  next  morning  presented 
one  of  the  most  beautiful  and  weird  scenes  that  I  have  ever 
witnessed.  It  steadily  grew  colder  on  Sunday  and  that  night 
the  thermometer  fell  to  seventeen  degrees  below  zero.  I  was 
sure  that  Buzzard's  Roost  would  be  wonderfully  beautiful  that 
afternoon,  and  notwithstanding  the  severe  cold,  I  went  out  to 
see  it.  I  did  not  expect  to  see  many  birds,  but  in  this  was 
agreeably  surprised.  From  the  interurban  car  I  saw  a  flock 
of  from  two  to  three  hundred  crows,  and  after  leaving  the  car, 
I  had  not  gone  more  than  an  eighth  of  a  mile,  until  I  heard, 
to  my  left,  a  "chipping"  noise  which  I  was  sure  was  made  by  birds. 
Stepping  to  the  roadside  and  looking  into  a  garden  I  dis- 
covered a  flock  of  about  fifty  tree  sparrows  feeding  on  the 
weed  seed  of  old  weed  stalks  that  stood  above  the  snow,  and 
keeping  up  their  "conversational  chatter"  and  thus  "bespeak- 
ing their  good  fellowship." 

When  they  are  with  us  their  food  consists  almost  ex- 
clusively of  weed  seed.  Professor  Beal  has  esti- 
mated that  during  the  two  hundred  days  they  average  to  re- 
main in  the  State  of  Iowa,  reckoning  ten  sparrows  to  the 
square  mile  and  one-fourth  of  an  ounce  as  the  daily  ration, 
they  destroy  one  million  seven  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
pounds  or  eight  hundred  and  seventy-five  tons  of  weed  seed. 
Contemplate,  if  you  will,  what  this  means  to  the  farmers  of 
that  State. 


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CHAPTER  LIV. 


WHY  PROTECT  THE  BIRDS? 

Since  the  birds  first  gladdened  the  earth  with  their  morn- 
ing song  and  the  beauty  of  their  plumage,  there  have  always 
been  those  who  have  loved  them  and  who  have  done  all  they 
could  to  protect  and  care  for  them.  But  in  this  busy,  hurrying 
world  of  ours  where  the  dollar  has  assumed  such  abnormal 
importance,  we  must  be  able  to  give  a  practical  reason  for  their 
protection  as  well  as  an  aesthetic  one.  For  many  years  birds 
were  ruthlessly  murdered  for  the  mere  love  of  the  sport  and 
because  we  did  not  realize  that  we  were  harming  ourselves 
by  permitting  such  acts.  But  the  untiring  work  of  scientists 
has  proved  beyond  a  doubt  the  great  value  of  the  birds,  and 
this  is  a  first  and  sufficient  reason  for  their  protection. 

Asa  Gray,  one  of  the  greatest  of  American  botanists,  has 
said,  "Animals  depend  absolutely  upon  vegetables  for  their 
being.  The  great  object  for  which  the  All-wise  Creator  estab- 
lished the  vegetable  kingdom  is,  that  plants  might  stand  on  the 
surface  of  the  earth  between  the  mineral  and  animal  creations, 
and  organize  portions  of  the  former  for  the  substance  of  the 
latter."  This  statement  is  but  a  reiteration  of  what  is  recorded 
in  Holy  Writ,  for  there  it  is  said,  "And  God  said,  and  to  every 
beast  of  the  earth  and  to  every  fowl  of  the  air,  and  to  every- 
thing that  creepeth  upon  the  earth,  wherein  there  is  the  breath 
of  life,  I  have  given  every  green  herb  for  meat." 

Weed  and  Dearborn  in  their  most  excellent  book,  Birds  in 
Their  Relation  to  Man,  say,  "A  correct  idea  of  the  economic 
role  of  the  feathered  tribes  may  be  obtained  only  by  a  broader 
view  of  nature's  methods — a  view  in  which  we  must  ever  keep 
before  the  mind's  eye  the  fact  that  the  parts  of  the  organic 
world  from  normal  to  man,  are  linked  together  in  a  thousand 
ways,  the  net  result  being  that  unstable  equilibrium  commonly 
called  'the  balance  of  nature.' "  In  preserving  the  balance  of 

297 


298  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

nature  so  that  the  earth  shall  yield  that  vegetation  which  "shall 
be  meat"  for  man,  three  vicious  elements  must  be  contended 
with,  namely,  (1)  the  weeds,  (2)  the  insects,  and  (3)  the 
rodents.  The  rapidity  with  which  these  pests  increase,  and  the 
damage  they  are  capable  of  doing,  is  almost  incomprehensible. 

It  is  also  recorded  that  God  said,  "cursed  is  the  ground 
for  my  sake ;  in  sorrow  shall  thou  eat  all  the  days  of  thy  life ; 
thorns  also  thistles  shall  it  bring  forth  to  thee ;  and  thou  shalt 
eat  of  the  herb  of  the  field;  in  the  sweat  of  thy  face  shalt  thou 
eat  bread  until  thou  return  unto  the  ground."  Since  that 
record  was  made  a  great  warfare  has  been  waged  in  this 
world,  between  good  and  evil,  and  this  has  been  true,  not  only 
in  the  world  of  morals  but  also  in  the  vegetable  world.  By 
"thorns  and  thistles,"  as  used  in  the  quotation,  thorny  and 
prickly  plants  alone  are  not  meant,  but  in  a  broader  sense,  all 
useless  and  troublesome  plants  are  included.  One  needs  only 
to  count  the  seeds  produced  by  a  single  plant  of  purslane, 
platain  or  thistle  to  be  convinced  of  the  prodigious  repro- 
ductive power  of  our  common  weeds.  But  for  the  warfare 
that  is  being  waged  against  them  by  man  and  his  allies,  the 
weeds  would  take  exclusive  possession  of  our  gardens  and 
fields  and  we  would  be  without  bread.  It  may  be  that  in  that 
condition,  we,  like  the  savage,  could  subsist  upon  the  wild 
fruits,  and  the  flesh  of  wild  animals,  and  be  able  to  clothe  our- 
selves with  their  skins,  but  it  would  be  impossible  for  us  to  live 
the  lives  of  civilized  beings  under  such  conditions. 

While  it  is  true  that  man  shall  earn  his  bread  by  the  sweat 
of  his  brow,  it  is  also  true  that  by  his  labor  alone,  he  cannot 
have  bread  to  eat.  He  is  a  dependent  being  and  without  the 
allies  which  nature  so  bountifully  supplies  to  him,  he  would  be 
utterly  powerless  in  keeping  under  control  its  evil  and  destruc- 
tive forces.  In  this  work  our  birds  are  our  most  effective  allies 
and  helpers,  and  notably  is  this  true  of  our  seed-eating  birds 
in  keeping  the  weeds  under  control.  This  valuable  service  to 
man  is,  in  the  main,  rendered  by  the  bird  family  Fringillidse, 
to  which  belong  the  sparrows,  finches,  buntings,  and  gros- 
beaks, and  which  contains  more  than  one  seventh  of  the  North 
American  species  of  birds.  Dr.  S.  D.  Judd  has  made  a  careful 
study  of  the  feeding  habits  of  many  of  these  birds  and  in  a 


Why  Protect  the  Birds?  299 

well  prepared  report  of  his  observations  upon  a  farm,  he  says, 
"The  tree  sparrows,  fox-sparrows,  white-throats,  song-spar- 
rows, and  juncos  fairly  swarmed  during  December  in  the  briers 
of  ditches  between  the  cornfields.  They  came  into  the  open 
fields  to  feed  upon  weed  seed,  and  worked  hardest  where  the 
smart-weed  formed  a  tangle  on  low  ground.  Later  in  the  season 
the  place  was  carefully  examined.  In  one  cornfield  near  a  ditch 
the  smartweed  formed  a  thicket  over  three  feet  high,  and  the 
ground  beneath  was  literally  black  with  seeds.  Examination 
showed  that  these  seeds  had  been  cracked  open  and  the  meat 
removed.  In  a  rectangular  space  of  eighteen  square  inches 
were  found  eleven  hundred  and  thirty  half  seeds  and  only 
two  whole  seeds.  Even  as  late  as  May  13  the  birds  were  still 
feeding  on  the  seeds  of  these  and  other  weeds  in  the  fields ;  in 
fact,  out  of  a  collection  of  sixteen  sparrows,  twelve,  mainly 
song,  chipping  and  field  sparrows,  had  been  eating  old  weed 
seed.  A  search  was  made  among  various  weeds,  but  so.  thoroughly 
had  the  work  been  done  that  only  half  a  dozen  seeds  could  be 
found.  The  birds  had  taken  practically  all  the  seed  that  was 
not  covered ;  in  fact,  the  song-sparrows  and  several  others  had 
scratched  up  much  buried  seed."  He  made  an  examination 
of  some  four  thousand  stomachs  of  sparrows  of  many  sorts, 
collected  all  over  the  United  States,  and  in  his  report  of  this 
work  he  says  that  "during  the  colder  half  of  the  year  the  food 
of  these  birds  consists  almost  entirely  of  the  seeds  of  weeds." 
In  his  report  Dr.  Judd  also  said :  "The  problem  of  weed 
destruction  is  perennial  in  'every  land  where  agriculture  is 
practiced.  Indeed,  so  serious  is  it,  that  soil  culture  may  be 
said  to  be  an  everlasting  war  against  weeds.  *  *  *  Certain 
garden  weeds  produce  an  incredible  number  of  seeds.  A 
single  plant  of  one  of  these  species  may  mature  as  many  as 
a  hundred  thousand  seeds  in  a  season,  and  if  unchecked  would 
produce  in  the  spring  of  the  third  year  ten  billion  plants. 
Fortunately  certain  agents  are  at  work  to  check  this  harvest, 
and  perhaps  the  most  efficient  among  them  are  the  seed-eating 
birds.  *  *  *  Since  they  attack  weeds  in  the  most  critical 
stage  of  life,  the  seed  period,  it  follows  that  their  services  must 
be  of  enormous  practical  value.  The  benefits  are  greatest  in 
the  case  of  hoed  crops,  since  here  are  found  the  largest  number 


300  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

of  annual  weeds,  which,  of  course,  are  killed  by  frost  and  must 
depend  for  perpetuation  solely  upon  seeds.  The  principal 
weeds  which  birds  prevent  from  spreading  are  ragweed, 
pigeon  grass,  smartweed,  bindweed,  crab  grass,  lamb's-quar- 
ters,  and  pigweed." 

After  a  full  discussion  of  what  birds  are  to  be  considered 
as  weed  destroyers  and  the  good  that  is  accomplished  by 
them,  Dr.  Judd  closes  his  summary  of  the  subject  by  saying, 
"The  birds  which  accomplish  the  most  as  weed  destroyers  are 
the  score  or  more  of  native  sparrows  that  flock  to  the  weed 
patches  in  early  autumn  and  remain  until  late  in  the  spring. 
During  cold  weather  they  require  an  abundance  of  food  to  keep 
their  bodies  warm,  and  it  is  their  habit  to  keep  their  stomachs 
and  gullets  heaping  full.  Often  one  of  these  birds  is  found  to 
have  eaten  300  seeds  of  pigeon  grass  or  500  seeds  of  lamb's- 
quarters  or  pigweed.  Because  of  their  gregarious  and  ter- 
restial  habits,  they  are  efficient  consumers  of  seeds  of  rag- 
weed, pigeon  grass,  crab  grass,  bindweed,  purslane,  smartweed 
and  pigweed.  In  short,  these  birds  are  little  weeders  whose 
work  is  seldom,  but  always  felt." 

Reference  to  the  photogravures,  "A  Lesson  in  Weed  Des- 
truction," from  photographs  made  by  my  friend,  Benjamin 
W.  Douglass,  shows  better  than  pen  can  tell,  how  effectively 
the  seed-eating  birds  do  their  work. 

In  addition  to  their  great  usefulness  as  weed  seed 
destroyers,  the  family  Fringillidse  do  much  good  in  destroying 
injurious  insects.  Weed  and  Dearborn  in  their  summary  of 
the  economic  value  of  birds  say:  "The  most  striking  par- 
ticulars brought  out  by  a  study  of  their  diet  are  the  enormous 
amounts  of  weed  seed  taken  during  winter  and  the  extent  to 
which  these  so-called  seed-eaters  take  insect  food  in  spring 
and  summer,  especially  in  the  presence  of  an  unusual  abund- 
ance of  edible  species.  For  example,  in  an  orchard  infested 
by  canker-worms  forty-seven  members  of  this  family  had 
eaten  ninety-one  per  cent,  of  insects  and  only  seven  per  cent, 
of  seeds,  canker  worms  alone  making  forty  per  cent,  of  the 
food." 

The  rapidity  with  which  the  insect  pests  increase  and 
the  destructive  powers  with  which  they  are  possessed  is 


A  Lesson  in  Weed  Destruction 

h 

BENJAMIN  W.  DOUGLASS 


A  chickweed  before  and  after  an  attack  by  the  sparrows. 


Why  Protect  the  Birds? 


301 


marvelous.  Reaumer,  in  his  history  of  the  insects,  estimates 
that  one  aphis  may  be  the  progenitor  of  not  less  than  5,- 
904,900,000  during  the  few  weeks  of  her  existence.  Theo- 
dore Wood,  in  his  book  on  Our  Insect  Enemies,  says :  "It 
may  seem  a  widely  and  extravagant  and  unjustifiable  state- 
ment if  we  say  that  but  for  certain  opposing  agencies  the  aphis 
would  overrun  the  entire  world ;  that  it  would  leave  scarcely 
a  green  leaf  upon  the  earth,  and  that  it  would  cause  such 
terrible  devastation  that  all  terrestial  life  would  wholly  dis- 
appear, and  the  globe  become  one  vast  desert  incapable  of  sup- 
porting animation,  and  utterly  without  living  beings  of  any 
kind.  Still  more  impossible  would  it  appear  were  we  to  state 
that  this  ruin  and  devastation  would  be  the  outcome,  not  of 
many  centuries  of  gradual  increase,  but  of  only  a  few  short 
months.  Incredible  as  the  assertion  may  seem,  however,  such 
results  are  no  more  than  must  logically  follow  if  the  aphis 
should  be  allowed  to  remain  perfectly  unmolested  during  the 
period  of  but  a  single  year."  And  this  is  only  one  of  these 
destructive  insect  pests  with  which  we  must  contend. 

Indeed,  there  are  pestiverous  and  destructive  insect  pests 
for  every  condition,  place  and  plant  about  us.  Forlnstance, 
in  the  air,  by  day,  we  have  flies,  butterflies,  wasps,  moths  and 
winged  ants,  and  at  night  moths,  mosquitoes,  bugs  and  beetles. 
Upon  our  shrubs  and  small  fruits  we  have  slugs,  leaf  hoppers, 
flea  beetles,  rose  chafers,  climbing  cutworms  and  caterpillars. 
In  our  gardens  we  have  cutworms,  cabbage  worms,  root  mag- 
gots, cucumber,  pea  and  bean  weevils  and  squash  bugs.  In 
our  orchards  we  have  borers,  codling  moths,  bark  lice,  plant 
lice,  cankerworms  and  leaf  caterpillars.  In  our  meadows  we 
have  grasshoppers,  cut  worms,  army  worms,  crane  flies,  white 
grubs  and  root  borers.  In  our  corn  and  wheat  fields,  we  have 
wire  worms,  ball  worms,  root  worms,  Hessian  flies,  ants  and 
chinch  bugs.  In  our  forests  we  have  plant  lice,  bark  lice,  trunk 
borers  and  leaf  caterpillars.  In  our  marshes,  ponds  and 
streams,  we  have  water  beetles,  water  bugs,  mosquitoes  and 
May  flies. 

Professor  C.  R.  Marlatt,  Assistant  Etimologist  in  charge 
of  the  experimental  field  work  of  the  United  States  Depart- 
ment of  Agriculture,  has  prepared  a  report  for  the  Department, 


302  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

in  which  he  sets  out  at  great  length  facts  to  support  the  as- 
sertion that  the  annual  loss  on  farm  products  in  the  United 
States  occasioned  by  the  destructive  insects  aggregates  $700,- 
000,000.  "In  no  other  country  in  the  world,"  he  says,  "do 
insects  impose  a  heavier  tax  on  the  farm  products.  The  losses, 
it  is  averred,  resulting  from  the  depredations  of  insects  on  all 
the  plant  products  of  the  soil,  both  in  their  growing  and  in 
their  stored  state,  exceed  the  entire  expenditures  of  the  na- 
tional government,  including  the  pension  roll  and  the  main- 
tenance of  the  army  and  navy."  This  is  a  startling  and  ap- 
palling statement,  and  forces  the  inquiry,  what  can  we  do  to 
prevent  this  wholesale  destruction  of  that  which  is  essential 
to  our  very  existence :  The  first  answer  of  those  who  have 
given  serious  thought  to  the  matter  is  the  protection  of  our 
insectiverous  birds.  And  why? 

We  have  already  seen  that  these  insect  pests  are  found 
everywhere  doing  their  destructive  work.  It  is  also  true  that 
we  have  the  birds  everywhere  to  hold  these  insect  pests  in 
check  and  destroy  them.  As  Mr.  Frank  M.  Chapman,  who 
perhaps  is  our  most  distinguished  living  ornithologist,  has  well 
said:  "In  the  air,  swallows  and  swifts  are  coursing  to  and 
fro,  ever  in  pursuit  of  the  insects  which  constitute  their  sole 
food.  When  they  retire,  the  night-hawks  and  whip-poor-wills 
take  up  the  chase,  catching  moths  and  other  nocturnal  insects 
which  would  escape  day-flying  birds.  The  flycatchers  lie  in 
wait,  darting  from  ambush  at  passing  prey,  and  with  a  sug- 
gestive click  of  the  bill  returning  to  their  post.  The  warblers, 
light,  active  creatures,  flutter  about  the  terminal  foliage,  and 
with  almost  the  skill  of  a  hummingbird,  peck  insects  from  leaf 
or  blossom.  The  vireos  patiently  explore  the  under  sides  of 
leaves  and  odd  nooks  and  corners  to  see  that  no  skulker 
escapes.  The  woodpeckers,  nuthatches  and  creepers  attend 
to  the  tree  trunks  and  limbs,  examining  carefully  each  inch 
of  bark  for  insects,  eggs  and  larvae,  or  excavating  for  the  ants 
and  borers  they  hear  at  work  within.  On  the  ground  the  hunt 
is  continued  by  the  thrushes,  sparrows,  and  other  birds,  who 
feed  upon  the  innumerable  forms  of  terrestial  insects.  Few 
places  in  which  insects  exist  are  neglected ;  even  some  species 
which  pass  their  earlier  stages  or  entire  lives  in  the  water  are  ' 


Why  Protect  the  Birds?  303 

preyed  upon  by  aquatic  birds."  In  the  language  of  another, 
the  birds  "have  been  likened  to  a  great  standing  army  which 
may  be  concentrated  at  short  notice  upon  any  locality  where 
there  is  an  outbreak  of  these  pests." 

The  third  class  of  destructive  pests  to  be  considered  are 
the  rodents.  These  belong  to  the  large  order  of  animals  hav- 
ing two  large  incisor  teeth  in  each  jaw,  separated  from  the 
molar  teeth  by  an  empty  space  and  are  gnawing  animals. 
Rats,  mice,  woodchucks,  rabbits,  muskrats  and  beavers  belong 
to  this  order.  Every  well  informed  person  knows  how  rapidly 
these  animals  increase  and  how  destructive  they  are  to  vege- 
tation. In  Australia  the  progeny  of  a  few  pairs  of  imported 
rabbits  have  overrun  the  country,  its  vegetation  has  been 
threatened  with  utter  destruction  and  millions  of  dollars  have 
been  spent  in  an  effort  to  get  rid  of  the  pest,  and  the  warfare 
yet  goes  on.  In  this  country,  if  not  kept  in  check,  they  are 
among  our  most  destructive  pests  and  especially  is  this  so 
in  our  vineyards  and  orchards  where  they  do  so  much  dam- 
age in  girdling  our  vines  and  trees.  Rats  and  mice  are  equally 
destructive.  Owls,  hawks  and  shrikes  are  our  most  effective 
aids  in  destroying  these  pests  and  keeping  them  in  check. 

It  was  Gilbert  White  of  Selborne,  the  English  clergyman 
and  naturalist  of  the  eighteenth  century,  who  directed  at- 
tention to  the  fact  that  the  owls  destroy  many  rodents.  Much 
has  been  said  about  hunting  with  a  camera  and  studying  the 
birds  with  a  field  glass.  Gilbert  White  studied  them  with 
sympathetic  eyes  as  he  tramped  through  his  parish,  "an  as- 
semblage of  hill,  dale,  woodlands,  heather  and  water."  Near 
by  his  parish  house  stood  a  tree  with  a  cavity,  in  which  lived 
a  pair  of  owls.  He  noticed  a  large  quantity  of  pellets  at  the 
root  of  the  tree  which  had  been  regurgitated  by  the  owls.  He 
examined  them  and  discovered  that  the  owls  had  destroyed 
great  quantities  of  mice  and  other  rodents.  Since  then  his 
observations  have  been  confirmed  by  many  naturalises.  In 
the  city  of  Washington  two  hundred  pellets  were  taken  from 
beneath  the  nest  of  a  barn  owl  and  examined  and  found  to  con- 
tain four  hundred  and  fifty-four  sculls,  of  which  two  hundred 
and  twenty-five  were  meadow  mice,  two  pine  mice,  one  hun- 
dred and  seventy-nine  house  mice,  twenty  rats,  six  jumping 


304  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

mice,  twenty  shrews,  one  star  nosed  mole,  and  one  English 
sparrow.  In  the  Department  of  Agriculture  at  Washington, 
forty-nine  stomachs  of  the  red-legged  hawk  were  examined 
and  it  was  found  that  forty  of  them  contained  mice,  and  five 
of  them  contained  such  small  rodents  as  rabbits,  gophers, 
weasels  and  shrews.  In  eighty-eight  stomachs  of  the  logger- 
head shrike,  only  seven  birds  were  found,  and  it  was  ascer- 
tained that  mice  constituted  fifty  per  cent,  of  their  food.  In 
1885  the  State  of  Pennsylvania  passed  what  was  called  the 
"Scalp  Act,"  offering  a  bounty  for  the  scalps  of  hawks  and 
owls.  The  United  States  Department  of  Agriculture  has 
estimated  that  the  passage  of  that  act  resulted  in  killing  over 
one  hundred  thousand  of  these  birds  and  that  by  their 
slaughter,  the  state  sustained  a  loss  of  near  four  million  dol- 
lars in  one  year  and  a  half. 

Prof.  Weed  says,  "After  many  years  of  study  of  the  re- 
lations of  birds  to  agriculture,  I  am  convinced  that  the  birds 
are  a  most  potent  factor  in  making  crop  production  possible, 
and  without  them,  we  should  be  overrun  with  pests — verte- 
brate and  invertebrate — to  an  extent  of  which  we  have  no 
conception."  Michelet,  the  great  French  historian  and  na- 
turalist in  his  "Insect  Life"  said,  "If  all  the  birds  of  the  world 
were  destroyed,  it  would  be  uninhabitable  for  men  in  nine 
years."  Do  not  all  of  these  facts  give  us  good  sound  practical 
reasons  for  protecting  the  birds? 

Birds  are  unique  in  their  structure.  They  are  the  only 
creatures  that  are  covered  with  feathers.  The  structure  of 
these  feathers  is  very  wonderful.  Notice  how  light  they  are, 
yet  how  strong.  How  they  are  adapted  to  retaining  the  heat 
of  the  body,  and  aiding  in  the  flight  of  the  bird.  Examine 
the  vanes  on  each  side  of  the  shaft  and  see  how  wonderfully 
the  thin  laminae  are  interlocked.  With  all  our  ingenuity  we 
can  make  nothing  like  them.  We  can  not  counterfeit  them. 
The  Indians  of  the  Shasta  Mountains  have  a  beautiful  little 
legend  about  the  origin  of  birds.  The  Great  Spirit,  they  say, 
in  looking  upon  the  bright  hued  leaves  of  autumn  thought 
them  too  beautiful  to  die.  So  he  endowed  them  with  new  life 
and  gave  to  them  wings  and  song : 


Why  Protect  the  Birds?  305 

"Thus  from  the  red  stained  oak  the  robin  came, 

The  cardinal,  the  maple's  splendor  bore; 
The  yellow  bird  the  willow's  faded  gold 

In  living  plumage  bore." 

This  is  the  reason,  so  the  Indians  say,  that  the  birds  are 
so  closely  allied  to  the  trees  and  return  each  year  to  build  their 
nests  beneath  their  friendly  shelter.  And  for  this  reason  I 
love  the  birds  and  would  protect  them. 

No  other  creatures  that  God  has  made,  are  so  gifted  with 
song,  as  are  the  birds.  As  Mr.  Chapman  says,  "Birds'  songs 
are  the  most  eloquent  of  nature's  voices ;  the  gay  carol  of  the 
grosbeak  in  the  morning,  the  dreamy  midday  call  of  the  pe- 
wee,  the  vesper  hymn  of  the  thrush,  the  clanging  of  the  geese 
in  springtime,  the  farewell  of  the  blue  birds. in  the  fall — how 
clearly  each  one  expresses  the  sentiment  of  the  hour  or  sea- 
son." I  have  heard  many  great  singers,  but  the  songs  of  none 
of  them  has  left  in  my  memory  a  recollection  of  such  sweet- 
ness as  that  of  a  robin  I  heard  one  evening  in  the  springtime 
when  I,  weary,  was  returning  home  from  my  office.  It  was 
perched  on  the  topmost  limb  of  a  maple  tree,  and  there  in  the 
rain  with  uplifted  head,  it  was  pouring  out  its  soul  in  song  to 
God,  its  Creator. 

"What  bird  is  that?    Its  song  is  good, 

And  eager  eyes 
Go  peering  through  the  dusky  wood 

In  glad  surprise. 
Then  late  at  night,  when  by  his  fire 

The  traveller  sits 
Watching  the  flames  go  brighter,  higher, 

The  sweet  song  flits 
By  snatches  through  his  weary  brain 

To  help  him  rest." 

Then  why  should  we  not  do  all  we  can  to  preserve  them? 

We  have  seen  that  their  services  to  us  are  invaluable,  that 
without  them  our  storehouses  would  be  empty  and  we  know 
that  they  are  the  most  beautiful  creatures  in  the  world.  They 
are  beautiful  in  their  symmetrical  forms  ;  in  their  varied  colors ; 
in  their  flight  and,  as  we  have  seen,  in  their  song.  A  study 
of  and  association  with  them  develops  a  love  for  the  beautiful 
and  inspires  one  to  a  higher  life.  And  this  brings  me  to  the 


306  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

last,  but  not  the  least  reason  why  I  love  the  birds  and  why  I 
would  protect  them,  and  that  is,  that  God  first  cared  for 
them  and  loved  them. 

"I  am  only  a  tiny  sparrow, 

A  bird  of  low  degree; 
My  life  is  of  little  value, 

But  the  dear  Lord  cares  for  me. 

"I  have  no  barn  or  store  house, 

I  neither  sow  nor  reap; 
God  gives  me  a  sparrow's  portion 

But  never  a  seed  to  keep. 

"I  know  there  are  many  sparrows, 

All  over  the  world  are  found, 
But  our  heavenly  Father  knoweth 

When  one  of  us  falls  to  the  ground. 

"Tho'  small,  we  are  never  forgotten, 

Tho'  weak,  we  are  never  afraid; 
For  we  know  the  dear  Lord  keepeth 

The  life  of  the  creatures  he  made. 

"I  fly  through  the  thickest  forest, 

I  light  on  many  a  spray; 
I  have  no  chart  or  compass, 

But  I  never  lose  my  way. 

"And  I  fold  my  wings  at  twilight, 

Wherever  I  happen  to  be, 
For  the  Father  is  always  watching, 

And  no  harm  will  come  to  me. 

"I  am  only  a  little  sparrow, 

A  bird  of  low  degree, 
But  I  know  the  Father  loves  me; 

Have  you  less  faith  than  we?" 


CHAPTER  LV. 


HOW  TO  HAVE  THE  BIRDS. 

The  Indiana  Audubon  Society  was  organized  April  26, 
1898.  I  am  proud  of  the  fact  that  I  was  one  of  its  charter  mem- 
bers. Its  good  work  for  the  birds  has  been  notable.  At  that 
meeting  I  read  the  following  paper,  under  the  title,  "The 
Preservation  of  Natural  Forest  Areas :  Their  Influence  on 
Birds."  I  said :  "It  requires  no  argument  to  prove  that  the 
preservation  of  forest  areas  is  essential  to  the  well-being  and 
preservation  of  our  birds.  It  is  recorded  that  Noah  "sent 
forth  a  dove  from  him,  to  see  if  the  waters  were  abated  from 
off  the  face  of  the  ground ;  but  the  dove  found  no  rest  for  the 
soles  of  her  feet.  And  again  he  sent  forth  the  dove  out  of  the 
ark,  and  the  dove  came  in  to  him  in  the  evening,  and  lo,  in 
her  mouth  was  an  olive  leaf  plucked  off."  Since  the  making 
of  this  record,  the  two — trees  and  birds — have  been  insepar- 
ably connected,  and  the  preservation  and  well  being  of  the 
one  is  essential  to  that  of  the  other.  The  forests  furnish  shel- 
ter, food  and  nestings  for  the  birds;  and  the  birds  distribute 
seeds  of  the  trees  and  destroy  those  things  which  are  so  des- 
tructive of  them. 

"In  the  Atlantic  Monthly  for  August,  1897,  Mr.  John 
Muir,  the  lover  of  forests,  and  the  agitator  of  their  preser- 
vation, says:  'The  forests  Of  America,  however  slighted  by 
man,  must  have  been  a  great  delight  to  God;  for  they  were 
the  best  He  ever  planted.  The  whole  continent  was  a  garden, 
and  from  the  beginning  it  seemed  to  be  favored  above  all  the 
other  wild  parks  and  gardens  of  the  globe.  So  they  ap- 
peared centuries  ago  when  they  were  rejoicing  in  wildness. 
The  Indians  with  stone  axes  could  do  them  no  more  harm 
than  could  gnawing  beavers  and  browsing  moose.  Even  the 

307 


3o6  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

last,  but  not  the  least  reason  why  I  love  the  birds  and  why  I 
would  protect  them,  and  that  is,  that  God  first  cared  for 
them  and  loved  them. 

"I  am  only  a  tiny  sparrow, 

A  bird  of  low  degree; 
My  life  is  of  little  value, 

But  the  dear  Lord  cares  for  me. 

"I  have  no  barn  or  store  house, 

I  neither  sow  nor  reap; 
God  gives  me  a  sparrow's  portion 

But  never  a  seed  to  keep. 

"I  know  there  are  many  sparrows, 

All  over  the  world  are  found, 
But  our  heavenly  Father  knoweth 

When  one  of  us  falls  to  the  ground. 

"Tho'  small,  we  are  never  forgotten, 

Tho'  weak,  we  are  never  afraid; 
For  we  know  the  dear  Lord  keepeth 

The  life  of  the  creatures  he  made. 

"I  fly  through  the  thickest  forest, 

I  light  on  many  a  spray; 
I  have  no  chart  or  compass, 

But  I  never  lose  my  way. 

"And  I  fold  my  wings  at  twilight, 

Wherever  I  happen  to  be, 
For  the  Father  is  always  watching, 

And  no  harm  will  come  to  me. 

"I  am  only  a  little  sparrow, 

A  bird  of  low  degree, 
But  I  know  the  Father  loves  me; 

Have  you  less  faith  than  we?" 


CHAPTER  LV. 


HOW  TO  HAVE  THE  BIRDS. 

The  Indiana  Audubon  Society  was  organized  April  26, 
1898.  I  am  proud  of  the  fact  that  I  was  one  of  its  charter  mem- 
bers. Its  good  work  for  the  birds  has  been  notable.  At  that 
meeting  I  read  the  following  paper,  under  the  title,  "The 
Preservation  of  Natural  Forest  Areas :  Their  Influence  on 
Birds."  I  said :  "It  requires  no  argument  to  prove  that  the 
preservation  of  forest  areas  is  essential  to  the  well-being  and 
preservation  of  our  birds.  It  is  recorded  that  Noah  "sent 
forth  a  dove  from  him,  to  see  if  the  waters  were  abated  from 
off  the  face  of  the  ground ;  but  the  dove  found  no  rest  for  the 
soles  of  her  feet.  And  again  he  sent  forth  the  dove  out  of  the 
ark,  and  the  dove  came  in  to  him  in  the  evening,  and  lo,  in 
her  mouth  was  an  olive  leaf  plucked  off."  Since  the  making 
of  this  record,  the  two — trees  and  birds — have  been  insepar- 
ably connected,  and  the  preservation  and  well  being  of  the 
one  is  essential  to  that  of  the  other.  The  forests  furnish  shel- 
ter, food  and  nestings  for  the  birds;  and  the  birds  distribute 
seeds  of  the  trees  and  destroy  those  things  which  are  so  des- 
tructive of  them. 

"In  the  Atlantic  Monthly  for  August,  1897,  Mr.  John 
Muir,  the  lover  of  forests,  and  the  agitator  of  their  preser- 
vation, says :  'The  forests  of  America,  however  slighted  by 
man,  must  have  been  a  great  delight  to  God ;  for  they  were 
the  best  He  ever  planted.  The  whole  continent  was  a  garden, 
and  from  the  beginning  it  seemed  to  be  favored  above  all  the 
other  wild  parks  and  gardens  of  the  globe.  So  they  ap- 
peared centuries  ago  when  they  were  rejoicing  in  wildness. 
The  Indians  with  stone  axes  could  do  them  no  more  harm 
than  could  gnawing  beavers  and  browsing  moose.  Even  the 

307 


308  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

fires  of  the  Indians,  and  the  fierce  shattering  of  the  lightning, 
seemed  to  work  together  only  for  good  in  clearing  spots 
here  and  there  for  smooth  garden  prairies,  and  openings  for 
the  flowers  seeking  light.  But  when  the  steel  axe  of  the  white 
man  rang  out  in  the  startled  air  their  doom  was  sealed.  Every 
tree  heard  the  bodeful  sound,  and  pillars  of  smoke  gave  sign 
in  the  sky.' 

"This,  indeed,  is  a  vivid  picture  of  the  situation  then; 
and  behold,  what  it  is  now !  A  continent  in  a  great  measure 
denuded  of  its  forests,  with  all  the  direful  results  that  have 
followed.  One  of  these,  and  not  the  least  of  them,  is  the 
extinction  of  many  species  of  birds  and  the  decimating  of  the 
remainder;  so  much  so,  that  they  who  have  the  future  pro- 
ductiveness and  welfare  of  our  country  at  heart  have  be- 
come alarmed,  and  are  inquiring  what  is  to  be  done — what 
is  the  remedy? 

"How  to  solve  the  problem,  what  is  best  for  forest  preser- 
vation and  restoration,  has  been  very  puzzling  and  has  been 
worked  at  in  different  ways  in  different  countries.  To  this 
end  laws  have  been  passed  and  different  means  have  been 
adopted  to  diffuse  a  knowledge  of  them  and  create  a  public 
sentiment  in  favor  of  them.  Russia  refuses  to  part  with  its 
ownership  of  its  forests.  France  has  spent  millions  in  planting 
and  making  the  planting  of  denuded  areas  possible ;  Russia 
has  passed  laws  preventing  further  clearing  of  forests  without 
a  license  from  the  government,  and  Switzerland  has  a  Federal 
Forest  Law  with  a  school  of  forestry  established.  In  Europe 
there  are  more  than  a  dozen  of  these  schools.  Notwithstand- 
ing all  this,  'Still,'  as  Mr.  Pinchot  says,  'America  has  her 
own  problem,  and  must  solve  it  in  her  own  way.' 

"Until  a  comparatively  recent  date,  nothing  in  this  regard 
in  a  practical  way  has  been  done.  While  it  is  true  that  the 
United  States  has  established  forest  reserves  in  the  far  West, 
embracing  about  40,000,000  acres  of  land,  and  has  enacted 
laws  for .  their  government,  and  that  the  United  States  De- 
partment of  Agriculture  has  been  giving  much  attention  to 
the  subject  of  forestry,  yet  as  to  this  subject  the  results  are 
very  meager. 

"On  the  recommendation  of  Governor  Black  of  the  State 


How  to  Have  the  Birds  309 

of  New  York,  the  Legislature  of  that  State  has  just  passed  a 
bill  establishing  a  college  of  forestry  at  Cornell  University 
and  placed  in  its  hands  for  management  30,000  acres  of  timber 
lands  in  the  Adirondack  Mountains.  The  faculty  of  the  col- 
lege is  to  consist  of  a  professor,  two  instructors,  a  forest 
manager  and  such  rangers  and  superintendents  as  may  be  re- 
quired. 

"More  is  due  to  the  Hon.  J.  Sterling  Morton  than  any 
other  man  in  the  United  States  for  creating  a  public  sentiment 
in  favor  of  the  protection  of  our  forests  and  the  encourage- 
ment of  tree  planting.  It  was  the  happy  thought  of  this  pio- 
neer settler  on  the  treeless  plains  of  Nebraska,  who  knew 
and  felt  the  value  of  trees  about  home,  as  well  as  their  im- 
portance for  the  many  uses  of  life,  to  enlist  his  neighbors  and 
fellow-settlers  throughout  the  State,  by  common  impulse, 
growing  out  of  common  wants  and  feelings,  in  the  work  of 
tree  planting  on  one  and  the  same  day.  It  was  he  who  thought 
out  the  plan  of  popularizing  arboriculture  and  originated  the 
term  or  phrase  'Arbor  Day,'  and  who,  January  4,  1872,  wrote, 
submitted  and  advocated  the  resolution  before  the  Nebraska 
State  Board  of  Agriculture  which  established  that  day  as  an 
anniversary.  In  an  address  delivered  April  22,  1887,  at  the 
State  University  of  Nebraska,  Mr.  Morton  truthfully  said: 
'It  has  become  the  scholaristic  festival  of  our  times,  common 
schools,  colleges  and  universities  have  taken  its  practical  ob- 
servance under  their  own  special  and  intelligent  direction. 
The  zeal  of  youth  and  the  cultured,  popularize  it.  That  which 
should  survive  in  America  must  harmonize  with  education 
and  refinement.  Whatsoever  the  schools,  the  teachers  and  the 
pupils  shall  foster  and  encourage,  shall  live  and  flourish, 
mentally  and  morally,  forever.  Students,  scholars  and  phil- 
osophers have  ever  been  associated  with  trees  and  their  con- 
servation.' 

"The  Hon.  Charles  R.  Skinner,  Superintendent  of  schools 
in  the  State  of  New  York,  says :  'There  is  a  practical  as  well  as 
a  sentimental  side  to  Arbor  Day.  It  has  its  inception  in  a  com- 
mendable movement  looking  to  the  protection  of  our  forest 
trees,  and  what  may  be  called  the  making  of  new  forests  on 
the  plains  of  the  West.  The  sentimental  feature  attached  to 


3io  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

its  observance  has  been  in  the  development  of  a  love  for 
Nature  and  her  wonderful  works,  and  the  encouragement  to 
the  delightful  study  of  trees,  plants,  flowers  and  birds.  There 
is  no  doubt  that  in  hundreds  of  thousands  of  the  children  of 
our  country  there  has  been  awakened  a  deep  interest  in  the 
atractive  study  of  how  plants  grow,  of  the  use  and  abuse  of 
trees,  and  of  the  relation  which  birds  and  flowers  bear  to 
the  problem  of  Nature  and  to  human  happiness.' 

"Indiana  is  noted,  perhaps,  more  for  the  excellence  of  her 
school  system  and  schools  than  any  other  thing.  The  pre- 
eminent standing  of  these  has  been  brought  about  by  an  evo- 
lution, ranging  through  three  quarters  of  a  century.  Fewer 
than  half  a  dozen  of  the  primitive  log  school-houses  are  now 
standing.  The  original  plan  embodied  the  idea  of  a  center  of 
higher  learning  in  each  county,  and  for  that  purpose  county 
seminaries  were  built.  These  have  disappeared  with  the  log 
school-houses.  We  now  are  upon  the  threshold  of  centers  of 
higher  learning  in  each  township,  and  this  is  well.  Our 
most  excellent  State  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction,  as 
I  understand  it,  advocates  the  abolition  of  many  of  the  country 
schools,  the  building  of  larger  school-houses  and  carrying  the 
children  to  them  in  public  conveyances.  This  means  an  op- 
portunity for  better  buildings,  better  teachers,  better  grading 
of  the  pupils,  better  facilities  for  teaching  and  better  scholar- 
ship. The  plan  ought  to  have  the  hearty  support  of  every  well 
wishing  citizen  of  the  State. 

"In  a  notable  address  delivered  lately  by  our  progressive 
Governor  in  the  State  of  Illinois,  he  advocated  the  teaching  of 
agriculture  and  horticulture  in  our  common  schools.  And  why 
not?  There  are  nearly  8,000  school  gardens  in  Austria.  In 
France  there  are  nearly  30,000  of  them,  and  the  minister  of 
public  instruction  has  resolved  that  no  one  shall  be  appointed 
master  of  an  elementary  school  unless  he  can  give  practical 
instruction  in  the  culture  of  mother  earth.  In  1871,  22,000 
children  were  receiving  instruction  in  horticulture  and  tree 
planting  in  Sweden,  and  each  of  more  than  2,000  schools  had 
for  cultivation  from  one  to  twelve  acres  of  ground.  Why 
should  we  be  behind  the  Old  World  in  caring  for  our 
schools? 


How  to  Have  the  Birds  311 

"It  is  in  the  Middle  West  that  the  greatest  destruction  of 
the  primitive  forest  has  taken  place.  In  Forest  and  Garden, 
Volume  8,  page  101,  is  a,  very  interesting  article  upon  the  for- 
ests of  the  Wabash  valley,  and  in  which  the  thought  of  Mr. 
Muir  is  verified,  that  is,  that  they  were  of  the  finest  of  the 
world.  Today  Indiana  is  almost  an  open,  treeless  prairie.  In 
but  few  places  are  there  any  primitive  forests  to  be  found. 
Nor  is  there  much  that  can  be  done  by  the  State  in  regard 
to  preservation  for  the  reason  that  there  are  no  forest  lands 
owned  by  the  State  to  set  apart  for  that  purpose.  What,  then, 
is  there  that  can  be  done? 

"In  my  judgment  the  State  of  New  York  has  made  a  wrong 
beginning  in  solving  the  problem,  and  that  the  work  ought  to 
begin  with  our  common  schools.  Why  may  not  every  school- 
house  ground  be  made  an  arboretum  and  ornithological 
garden,  where  the  pupils  may  have  under  their  eyes  continu- 
ally specimens  of  all  the  trees  and  birds  to  be  found  in  our  State, 
and  where  agriculture,  horticulture  and  gardening  may  be 
taught? 

"My  thought  is,  that  there  ought  to  be  at  least  one  graded 
or  finishing  school  in  each  township  in  this  State ;  that  it 
ought  to  be  located  on  from  twenty  to  forty  acres  of  land  to 
be  owned  by  the  township  for  school  purposes ;  that,  when 
possible,  forest  lands  should  be  purchased  for  this  purpose ; 
that  not  less  than  one-half  of  each  tract  purchased  ought  to 
be  preserved  as  a  forest,  and  if  not  a  forest,  it  ought  to  be 
planted  in  forest  trees ;  and  that  the  other  or  remaining  one- 
half  ought  to  be  used  in  teaching  agriculture,  horticulture  and 
gardening.  By  this  means,  at  least  twenty  thousand  acres  of 
land  would  be  dedicated  to  these  purposes ;  we  would  have 
all  the  desirable  advantages  to  be  obtained  by  the  scheme  of 
our  excellent  Superintendent,  the  opportunity  to  carry  into 
effect  the  good  suggestion  of  our  progressive  Governor,  our 
country  schools  made  equal  to  our  city  schools,  and  there 
would  be  no  reason  why  the  children  of  our  farmers  should 
leave  their  homes  to  obtain  a  higher  and  better  education. 
The  plan  I  have  suggested  would  be  an  ideal  one  for  the 
birds,  for  it  is  true  that  most  of  them  love  forest  areas  better 
than  they  do  large  tracts  of  dense  woodland. 


312  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

"In  the  Arnold  Arboretum,  in  the  vicinity  of  Boston,  in 
the  summer  of  1895,  there  were  found  fifty  summer  and  six- 
teen winter  species  of  birds  in  large  numbers,  besides  many 
other  species  that  passed  through  during  spring  and  autumn. 
Mr.  Morris  Gibbs,  of  Kalamazoo,  an  authority  on  birds,  says : 
"Still,  a  country  about  two-thirds  cleared  and  well  peopled 
is  sure  to  embrace  more  species  of  birds  than  is  one  with  its 
trees  all  standing. 

"About  twenty  years  ago  I  took  charge  of  about  fifteen 
acres  on  our  farm,  and  since  then  no  stock  has  been  permitted 
to  pasture  on  it.  It  is  wonderful  the  change  that  has  taken 
place.  To-day  it  is  one  of  the  wildest  bits  of  woodland  in  the 
country,  and  most  of  the  wild  flowers  indigenous  to  this  lo- 
cality have  reappeared,  and  I  am  sure  that  more  birds  are  to 
be  found  on  it  than  on  any  other  piece  of  land  of  the  same 
size  in  the  county." 

I  would  now  add  to  what  I  then  said,  that  if  we  would 
have  birds  about  our  homes  we  must  have  as  few  cats  as 
possible.  There  is  nothing  that  destroys  as  many  birds  as 
the  cats.  We  also  ought  to  plant  much  shrubbery,  preferably 
berry  bearing  kinds,  about  our  homes.  This  doubly  pays,  for 
by  doing  so  we  make  our  homes  more  beautiful  and  attractive, 
and  provide  food  and  nesting  places  for  our  birds.  Birds 
love  water  for  drinking  and  bathing  purposes,  and  for  this 
reason  we  ought  to  provide  places  for  them  for  these  uses, 
but  in  doing  so,  we  must  be  careful  to  so  construct  them  that 
the  cats  can  not  catch  them.  We  also,  ought,  when  snow  is 
on  the  ground,  to  provide  food  for  our  birds.  This  we  can 
do  by  putting  out  grain  in  sheltered  places  and  by  tacking 
up  bits  of  meat  and  suet  for  them.  And  above  all  things,  if 
we  would  have  birds  about  us,  we  must  treat  them  kindly.  It 
was  my  great  privilege  to  visit  Mrs.  Julia  H.  Conklin  at  West- 
field,  Ind.,  early  in  the  spring  of  1906,  where  the  birds  are 
cared  for  and  treated  in  the  manner  I  have  here  indicated,  and 
I  was  rewarded  by  seeing  more  species  of  birds  and  larger 
numbers  of  them  about  her  home  and  nesting  there  than  any 
other  place  that  I  have  ever  visited. 


CHAPTER  LVL 


NESTING   BOXES* 


Edward  Howe  Forbush 

Illustrated  by  the  Author. 


There  is   no  better  way  to  attract  and  protect  several 
species  of  useful  birds  than  to  put  up  nesting-boxes.     Every 
family,  rich  or  poor,  that  lives  in  the  coun- 
try, can  provide  them.     Old  worn  or  waste 
materials  may  be  used  if  others  cannot  be 
procured ;    for    the    birds    seem    to    prefer 
weather-beaten   lumber  or  rusty  metal  to 
that  which  is  new,  bright  or  painted. 

Among  my  early  recollections  there 
comes  to  mind  an  old,  unpainted,  weather- 
beaten  New  England  farmhouse,  the  home 
of  a  poor  farmer  with  many  children.  It 
stood  in  the  shade  of  a  giant  elm  by  the 
roadside,  and  high  up  the  rugged  trunk  of 
the  old  tree  another  home,  a  box  made  of 
ancient  shingles  weather-stained  and  moss- 
grown,  was  occupied  by  a  family  of  blue- 
birds. I  noted  every  detail  of  their  airy  castle,  and  on  return- 
ing home  secured  four  old  shingles  and  a  piece  of  board  from 


The  Shingle  Boa 


*  From  Bird-Lore,  the  official  organ  of  the  Audubon  Societies.  This  is  an  illustrated 
magazine  devoted  to  the  study  and  protection  of  birds.  Published  at  66  Fifth  Avenue, 
New  York  City. 

313 


Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 


A  New  Use  for  an 
Old  Funnel 


amongst  the  kindling  wood,  and  with  a  hatchet  and  saw  a 
rough  box,  like  the  accompanying  cut,  was  made  and  put  up 

in  one  of  our  cherry  trees. 

Soon  a  pair  of  bluebirds  came, 
and  after  that  many  pairs  nested  in 
such  boxes.  The  shingle  box  answers 
its  purpose  fairly  well  if  put  up 
against  the  side  of  a  building,  or  on  a 
tall  pole  or  tree  trunk,  where  the  cat 
is  not  likely  to  climb.  Any  small  box 
will  do,  if  it  is  nearly  the  right  size  and 
shape,  but  it  will  be  better  to  have  a 
piece  of  thin  board  or  shingle  nailed 
flat  on  the  top  and  projecting  a  little 
on  all  sides  to  make  the  roof  tight  and 
shed  the  rain.  If  the  board  projects 
well  out  over  the  entrance,  hole,  it 
will  keep  the  rain  from  driving  in.  In  Massachusetts,  where 
my  experiments  have  been  made,  it  is  best  to  have  the  en- 
trance to  the  box  face  west.  Those  who  cannot  conveniently 
make  or  purchase  boxes  may  use  tomato  cans,  old  tin- 
ware, such  as  milk-cans,  funnels,  pails,  coffee-pots  or  tea- 
pots. The  worn  out  funnel  nailed  to  a  piece 
of  old  board  serves  to  show  one  way  in 
which  such  contrivances  may  be  put  up. 
The  board  may  be  nailed  or  screwed  to  a 
tree  or  the  side  of  a  barn. 

I  have  seen  a  barn  swallow's  nest  built 
in  a  lard  pail  which  was  used  to  stop  a  stove- 
pipe hole  in  the  chimney  of  a  deserted 
house.  If  old  tinware  is  used,  it  is  best  to 
have  it  in  trees  where,  being  shaded  by  the 
leaves,  it  will  not  be  heated  by  the  sun's 
rays.  There  should  be  a  few  small  holes 
in  the  bottom  of  each  pot  or  can,  so  that, 
should  the  rain  happen  to  drive  in,  it  may 
run  out.  There  never  should  be  an  un- 
. covered  hole  in  the  top.  If  a  lard  pail  is  used,  it  must  have  a 
cover  to  keep  out  the  rain,  and  a  hole  must  be  cut  in  one  side 


Hollow  I,imb  Box 


Nesting  Boxes 


The  Birch 
Bark  Box 


for  an  entrance.    Tree  pruning  is  a  chief  cause  of  the  scarcity 

of  certain  birds  in  some  localities.     When  hollow  limbs  are 

cut  off  they  may  be  cut  up  into  sections  and 

each  section  roofed,  bored  and  mounted  in 

such  a  way  as  to  make  two  or  more. nesting 

places  out  of  one. 

A   handsome    and    durable    box   may   be 

made  of  bark.     This  style  of  box  is  one  of 

Mr.    William    Brewster's    ingenious    inven- 
tions, and  yet  is  untried;  but  I  have  made  a 

considerable   number  of  them   and   see  no 

reason   why   they  will   not   be   serviceable. 

Old  tin  utensils  may  be  useful  to  the  farmer 

to  put  up  in  his  orchard,  but  they  are  not 

ornamental  and  should  be  placed  in  trees 

where  they  will  be  hidden  by  the  foliage; 

but  the  bark  box  is  novel,  useful,  neat,  and 

also  decorative  in  a  rustic  way. 

The  birch  boxes  must  be  made  late  in  June,  when  the 

bark  will  peel  readily.    A  small  tree  can  be  cut  down  and  cut 

into  sections  long  enough  for  boxes.  Each  box  is  made  by 

peeling  off  both  outer  and  inner  bark,  then  sawing  a  slice  off 
each  end  of  the  stick  for  the  bottom  and  top, 
tacking  the  bark  on  the  ends,  nailing  on  the 
supporting  stick,  and  then  covering  the  top 
with  the  green  bark  from  a  young  pine,  to 
make  it  water-tight. 

These  small  boxes  are  suitable  for  the 
chickadee.  The  bark  of  the  chestnut  makes 
strong  and  durable  boxes,  which  may  be 
covered  or  roofed  with  zinc,  for  the  larger 
birds. 

The  cat  and  the  English  sparrow  are  the 
chief  enemies  of  the  native  birds  about  our 
villages  and  cities.  An  objection  to  many 
bird-houses  is  that  they  are  not  cat-proof. 
When  my  first  shingle  box  had  been  up 
three  or  four  weeks  the  family  cat  was  found,  one  day,  hang- 
ing on  it  and  clawing  out  the  young  birds.  Later  a  box  which 


Box  for  Bluebirds 
or  Chickadees 


3i6 


Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 


Tree  Swallow's  Box 


seemed  to  be  cat-proof  was  devised  for  blue-birds.     It  was 
very  deep  with  an  overhanging  cover  or  roof,  no  perch,  and 

the  entrance  hole  well  up  under  the 
eaves.  This  makes  it  difficult,  if 
not  impossible,  for  the  cat  to  hang 
on  and  reach  the  nest.  The  young 
birds  find  it  rather  hard  to  get  out 
of  such  a  box  at  first.  They  have  to 
make  many  attempts,  and  when 
they  finally  escape  they  are  quite 
strong  and  less  likely  to  be  caught 
by  cats  than  they  would  be  if  reared 
in  a  box  from  which  they  could 
get  out  before  they  were  fully 
fledged. 

The    ordinary    small     bird-house 
that  is  put  up  for  martins  or  tree 

swallows  must  be  set  on  a  tall,  slim  pole,  to  give  the  birds  a 
degree  of  immunity  from  the  cat.     These  birds  usually  seem 
to  prefer  a  house  elevated  from  fifteen  to  thirty  feet  from  the 
ground  on  such  a  pole.     Ordinarily,  the  entrance  holes  are 
made  too  near  the  bottom  or  floor,  and  the  young  birds,  being 
nearly  on  a  level  with  the  doorway,  are 
sometimes  pushed  out  or  fall  out  in  their 
eagerness   for  food,   and  so  become  the 
prey  of  the  prowling  cat. 

In  building  martin  boxes  their  danger 
may    be    partially    guarded    against    by 


having  a  little  platform  around  each 
story,  and  a  railing  not  less  than  three 
or  four  inches  in  height  around  the  plat- 
form. 

The  shape  and  size  of  the  bird-boxes 
must  be  regulated  by  the  sizes  and  habits 
of  the  birds  for  which  they  are  intended. 
It  is  better  to  have  them  comfortably 
large  than  too  small,  for  this  gives  the 

birds  more  room  and  air.    In  my  experience,  when  birds  have 
their  choice,  the  long,  deep  boxes  placed  rather  low  are  more 


Box  with  Sliding 
Cover 


Nesting  Boxes  3i7 

likely  to  be  occupied  by  the  bluebirds,  chickadees  and  wrens, 
than  are  the  square  boxes  or  bird-houses,  especially  if  they 
are  raised  high  in  the  air  on  poles. 

While  the  exact  size  of  the  box  is  rather  immaterial,  the 
size  of  the  entrance  hole  is  most  important.  This  should  be 
just  large  enough  to  admit  the  desired  tenant,  and  small 
enough  to  keep  out  all  larger  birds.  A  diameter  of  one  and 
seven-eights  of  an  inch  will  do  for  wrens,  one  and  one-fourth 
inches  for  chickadees,  one  and  one-half  inches  for  bluebirds 
or  swallows,  two  and  one-half  inches  for  martins,  and  three 
and  one-half  inches  for  flickers  and  screech  owls.  By  observ- 
ing this  simple  rule  about  the  size  of  the  doorway,  it  some- 
times is  possible  to  have  several  species  nesting  amicably 
within  a  small  area. 

Martins,  breeding  as  they  do  in  large  communities,  are 
particularly  subject  to  parasites  and  other  adverse  influences. 
Nearly  all  the  martins  in  Massachusetts  seem  to  have  suc- 
cumbed to  the  cold  rain  storms  of  June,  1903.  They  were 
then  decimated  throughout  most  of  southern  New  England. 
It  seems  probable  that  the  only  hope  of  their  soon  recovering 
their  foothold  there  lies  in  putting  up  more  martin  boxes 
and  thoroughly  cleaning  out  those  now  filled  with  dead  mar- 
tins or  with  English  sparrows'  nests.  In  a  few  cases  in 
southern  Maine  where  this  was  done  martins  bred  during 
the  past  season.  Elsewhere  in  the  same  towns  there  were 
no  martins. 

One  of  the  most  important  questions  asked  by  those  who 
are  putting  up  bird-houses  is,  "How  shall  we  get  rid  of  the 
English  sparrow?"  The  sparrows  are  kept  away  from  my 
bird  boxes  by  the  use  of  a  gun  loaded  with  small  charges  of 
powder  and  dust  shot.  *They  have  so  well  learned  their  les- 
son that  there  has  been  no  necessity  for  shooting  any  for  two 
years.  Where  these  birds  are  plenty,  however,  continuous 
shooting  may  be  necessary.  I  have  never  had  any  success  in 
putting  up  boxes  hung  so  as  to  swing  by  a  wire.  The  spar- 
rows do  not  nest  in  them,  but  neither  do  other  birds ;  never- 
theless, some  of  my  correspondents  have  known  both  blue- 


*  I  would  not  kill  the  sparrows. 


3i8  Birds  of  Buzzard's  Roost 

birds  and  tree  swallows  to  nest  in  these  boxes.  This  is  only 
one  of  the  numerous  instances  that  teach  one  that  his  own 
experience  alone  is  never  an  infallible  guide.  Those  who  are 
much  troubled  by  the  sparrow  may  find  the  swinging  boxes 
worth  trying. 

Little  reliance  can  be  placed  on  boxes  without  a  perch, 
for  a  sparrow  is  likely  to  get  into  any  hole  that  any  other 
bird  of  its  size  can  enter.  Mrs.  Mary  R.  Stanley  suggests  the 
use  of  martin  boxes  without  a  perch  and  with  the  entrance 
underneath.  I  have  had  no  experience  with  such  houses. 

Every  small  nesting-box  should  be  provided  with  a  cover 
or  door,  by  which  it  can  be  opened  and  the  contents  removed. 
This  is  always  practicable,  except  perhaps  with  large  martin 
boxes,  which  should  have  entrance  holes  large  enought  so 
that  the  rooms  can  be  cleaned  out  through  them.  A  box 
which  can  be  opened  provides  a  way  to  get  rid  of  the  sparrows. 
Their  eggs  can  be  removed  every  week  until  they  tire  of 
laying  and  leave  the  locality,  or  their  nests  can  be  destroyed 
with  little  trouble.  There  need  be  no  sentiment  about  des- 
troying these  unfortunate  little  pests.  Squirrels  and  mice 
often  occupy  these  boxes,  and  their  nests  must  be  removed 
unless  we  prefer  them  to  the  birds.  All  the  boxes  mentioned 
above  provide  for  this,  except  the  shingle  and  bark  boxes, 
which,  however,  can  easily  be  made  to  open.  The  box  shown 
in  the  cut  above  is  the  most  convenient  of  all,  where  English 
sparrows  are  plenty.  The  door  extends  half  way  down  the 
front  and  is  attached  to  a  narrow  cover  which  overlaps  a  part 
of  the  top  of  the  box.  This  arrangement  needs  no  locking 
so  long  as  it  is  not  meddled  with  by  children,  and  can  be 
taken  out  in  an  instant  without  disturbing  the  nest,  leaving 
an  opening  large  enough  to  put  in  the  hand  and  remove  the 
contents  of  the  box  at  once. 

For  those  who  wish  to  study  the  habits  of  such  birds  as 
can  be  induced  to  nest  in  boxes,  the  observation  box  shown  in 
the  cut  is  very  nearly  perfect.  More  than  thirty  years  ago 
I  made  the  first  one  for  the  purpose  of  studying  the  domestic 
economy  of  a  pair  of  bluebirds.  It  is  a  simple  affair  with  one 
side  rabbeted  for  a  pane  of  glass,  and  a  door  which  shuts  over 
the  glass.  The  door  is  kept  closed  most  of  the  time  until  the 


Nesting  Boxes 


319 


young  are  hatched.  It  can  then  be  kept  open  as  much  as 
seems  desirable,  to  observe  the  habits  of  the  birds  through 
the  glass ;  but  it  must  be  arranged  so  that  the  sun  will  not 
shine  in  it,  as  that  might  be  fatal  to  the  young  birds.  The  box 
shown  in  the  cut  is  mounted  on  a  short  board  projecting  from 
my  window  sill.  The  door  is  hinged  at  the  bottom  by  a  piece 
of  leather,  and  opens  toward  the  window.  It  has  been  occu- 
pied for  three  seasons  by  chickadees,  and  any  one  sitting  at 


OBSERVATION    BOX     OPEN 


OBiERVATION    BOX     CLOSED 


the  open  window  can  watch  the  young  birds  as  they  are  fed, 
note  their  growth  and  development,  the  character  and  amount 
of  their  food,  the  nest-cleaning  and  all  their  household  affairs. 
The  old  birds  were  first  attracted  to  the  windows  by  feeding 
them  there.  Then  they  found  the  box  a  good  place  for  shel- 
ter, and  finally  nested  in  it.  They  are  good  neighbors,  attend- 
ing to  their  own  business  and,  as  unpaid  laborers  in  our  fruit 
trees  and  woodland,  their  work  of  clearing  insects  from  the 
premises  is  of  the  utmost  value. 


of  earf  #  anb  0ea  anb  0% 
Creafton'0  0of>erci$n  £orb  anb  (King, 

^un^  f  ^e  0f  atrg  worfb  on 
@,nb  formeb  aftfte  f^e  0patroi»'0  t»in0, 
Q0fe00  f  0c  bumB  creaf  ure0  of  C6g  care, 
to  feir  t>oicefe00 


u0  f  0eg  toif,  for  u0  f  (Jeg  bte, 

creaf  ure0  2$ou  ^a0t  mabe; 
tee  bare  f  §eir  rtg^f  0  beng, 
On  tv^ont  2^g  0eaf  of  fof>c  i0  faib? 
u  our  0earf0  to  ^ear  f^eir  pfca, 
bo0t  man'0  in  prager  to 


—  Emily  B.  Lord. 


Index  of  Bird's  Anatomy 


AJ1ERJCAN.  € 


Index  of  Orders  and  Families 


Order            Family                  Scientific  Name                         Common  Name  Page 

Anseres Anatidae Aix  sponsa Wood  Duck 75 

Herodiones....Ardeinae Ardea  herodias Great  Blue  Heron 69 

Limicolae Scolopacidae Philohela  minor American  Woodcock 81 

Limicolas Charadridae ^gialitis  vocifera Killdeer 87 

Gallinae Tetraonidas  Colinus  virginianus Bob  White 283 

Columbae  Columbidae Zenaidura  macrorua Mourning  Dove 237 

Raptores Cathartidae  Cathartes  aura Turkey  Vulture.. 51 

Raptores Falconidae Bueto  borealis Red-tailed  Hawk 29 

Raptores Falconidae Falco  sparverius American  Sparrow  Hawk 35 

Raptores Bubonidae Megascops  asio Screech  Owl 45 

Raptores Bubonidae Bubo  virginianus Great  Horned  Owl 39 

Coccyges Cuculidae  Coccyzus  americanus Yellow-billed  Cuckoo 187 

Coccyges Alcedinidae Ceryle  alcyon.. Belted  Kingfisher 63 

Pici Picidae Dryobates  pubescens Downy  Woodpecker 265 

Pici  Picidae Melanerpes  erythrocephalus....Red-headed  Woodpecker 257 

Pici Picidae Colaptes  auratus Flicker 249 

Macrochires..Caprimulgidae  ....Chordeiles  virginianus Night  Hawk  181 

Macrochires  ..Micropodidae Chaetura  pelagica Chimney  Swift 209 

Macrochires..Trochilidae_. Trochilus  colubris Ruby-throated  Hummingbird..  175 

Passeres Tyrannidae Tyrannus  tyrannus Kingbird 13! 

Passeres Tyrannidae Sayornis  phoebe Phcebe 137 

Passeres Corvidae Cyanocitta  cristata Blue  Jay 23 

Passeres.. Corvidae Corvus  americanus American  Crow 17 

Passeres Icteridae Dolichonyx  oryzivorus Bobolink 165 

Passeres Icteridae Molothrus  ater Cowbird 149 

Passeres Icteridae Sturnella  magna  Meadow  Lark 153 

Passeres Icteridae Icterus  galbula Baltimore  Oriole 159 

Passeres Icteridae Quiscalus  quiscula  aenus Bronzed  Crackle 143 

Passeres Fringillidae Spinus  tristis American  Goldfinch 229 

Passeres Fringillidae Spizella  monticola Tree  Sparrow 293 

Passeres Fringillidae Junco  hyemalis .Junco 289 

Passeres Fringillidae Melospiza  fasciata Song  Sparrow 105 

Passeres Fringillidae Cardinalis  cardinalis Cardinal 9 

Passeres Fringillidae Habia  ludoviciana Rose-breasted  Grosbeak 221 

Passeres Fringillidae Passerina  cyanea Indigo  Bunting 223 

323 


Index  gf  Orders  and  Families — Continued 

Order            Family                  Scientific  Name                         Common  Name  Page 

Passeres Fringillidae Spiza  americana Dickcissel 171 

Passeres Tanagridae Piranga  erythromelas Scarlet  Tanager 217 

Passeres Hirundinidae Prognesubis Purple  Martin 199 

Passeres.. Hirundinidae Bhelidon  erythrogaster   Barn  Swallow  203 

Passeres Ampelidae Ampelis  cedrorum  Cedar  Waxwing  243 

Passeres Laniidae Lanius  ludovicianus Loggerhead  Shrike 57 

Passeres Vireonidae Vireo  olivaceus Red-eyed  Vireo 233 

Passeres Mniotiltidae  Dendrocia  aestiva Yellow  Warbler 193 

Passeres Troglodytidae Galeoscoptes  carolinensis Cat  Bird 119 

Passeres Troglodytidae Harporhynchus  rufus Brown  Thrasher 115 

Passeres Troglodytidae Troglodytes  aedon.. House  Wren 125 

Passeres Certhiidae  Certhia  familiaris  americana.. ..Brown  Creeper 279 

Passeres Paridae  Sitta  carolinensis .....White-breasted  Nuthatch 2?i 

Passeres Paridas  Parus  bicolor Tufted  Titmouse 275 

Passeres Turdidae Turdus  mustelinus Wood  Thrush  in 

Passeres Turdidae Merula  migratoria American  Robin 91 

Passeres Turdidae Sialiasialis Bluebird 99 


324 


Index  of  Contents 


Abbott,  C.  C.,  quoted,  21,  77. 
Accipitrinae,  of  what  composed,  29. 
Adaptability   of  birds     to     various 

conditions,  268. 

Aeolus,  father  of  Halcyone,  67. 
Aeolus  guards  the  winds,  68. 
Agialitis  vocifera,  87-90. 
Aix  sponsa,  75-79. 
Alaudidae,  family  of,  153. 
Alcedinidas,  family  of,  63. 
Alexander,   Grace,   quoted,  42. 
Allen,  James  Lane,  quoted,  13,  15. 
American  golden  plover,  migration 

of,  89. 

American  goldfinch,  229-232. 
American     Ornithology,     quotation 

from,  23,  41,  153,  213,  251. 
American  robin,  91-97. 
American  sparrow  hawk,  35-38. 
American    woodcock,    81-85. 
Ampelidae,  family  of,  243. 
Ampelis  cedrorum,  243-247. 
Animals  depend     upon     vegetables, 

297. 
Animals,  wild,  at  Buzzard's  Roost, 

6. 

Anatidae,  family  of,  75. 
Anatinse,  subfamily  of,  75. 
Anserinae,    subfamily   of,   75. 
A     Naturalist's     Rambles       About 

Home,  quotation  from,  21,  77. 
Aphis,  rapid  increase  of,  301. 
Appollo,  visit  to  Ceyx,  67. 
Artie  Circle,   crows   breeding  with- 
in, 18. 

Ardeia  herodias,  69-73. 
Ardeidse,  family  of,  69. 
Ardeinae,  subfamily  of,  69. 
Audubon,   John   J.,   quoted,   19,   27, 

54,   71,  77,   92,   93,   122,   140,   201, 

211. 

Audubon,  John  J.,  sketch  of,  214. 
Audubon  Park,  location  of,  214. 
Australia's  rabbit  pest,  303. 
Autumn  and  spring  compared,  277. 


Bailey,  William  L.,  quoted,  89,  236. 

Baltimore,  Lord,  account  of,  159. 

Baltimore   oriole,  159-163. 

Barn   swallow,  203-207. 

Baskett,  James  N.,  quoted,  70,  172, 

239,    253,   272,   277,   278,   291. 
Bass,  Mamie  L.,  quoted,  223. 
Bates,  Mrs.,  quoted,  207. 
Beal,  F.  E.  L.,  quoted,  108,  133,  139, 

145,  162,  185,  266,  267,  295. 
Beech  trees  at  Buzzard's  Roost,  259. 
Beech,  the  Nesbit,  4,  259. 
Beetles,  click,  account  of,  163. 
Belted    kingfisher,    63-68. 
Bendire,  Major  Charles,  quoted,  23, 

31,    36,    151,    162,    166,    177,    184, 

190,  210,  250,  266,  268,  286. 
Bible  account  of  the  dove,  240. 
Bible,  quotations  from,  4,  240,  297, 

298. 
Bicknell,     Eugene     P.,    quoted,    82, 

293. 

Big  Branch  described,  107. 
Bills  of  birds,  shapes  and  uses  of, 

12. 
Bill  of— 

Bluebird,  100. 

Bobolink,    165. 

Bob  White,  284. 

Bunting,   Indigo,   226. 

Cardinal,  9. 

Catbird,   120. 

Cowbird,   149. 

Creeper,  Brown,  279. 

Crow,   American,   17. 

Cuckoo,   Yellow-billed,   188. 

Dickcissel,   171. 

Dove,  Mourning,  238. 

Duck,  Wood,  76. 

Flicker,  250. 

Goldfinch,  American,  230. 

Grackle,  Bronzed,  144. 

Grosbeak,   Rose-breasted,    221. 

Hawk,  Night,  182. 

Hawk,  Red-tailed,  30. 


325 


Index  gf  Contents — Continued 


Hawk,  Sparrow,  35. 
Heron,  Great  blue,  70. 
Hummingbird,   Ruby-throated, 

176. 

Jay,  Blue,  24. 
Junco,   290. 
Killdeer,  88. 
Kingbird,  132. 
Kingfisher,  Belted,  64. 
Lark,  Meadow,  154. 
Martin,  Purple,  200. 
Nuthatch,   White-breasted,   273. 
Oriole,  Baltimore,  181.  , 

Owl,  Great  horned,  40. 
Owl,  Screech,  46. 
Phoebe,  138. 
Robin,  American,  92. 
Shrike,  Loggerhead,  58. 
Sparrow,   Song,  106. 
Sparrow,   Tree,   294. 
Swallow,  Barn,  203. 
Swift,  Chimney,  210. 
Tanager,  Scarlet,  217. 
Thrasher,  Brown,  116. 
Thrush,   Wood,   112. 
Titmouse,  Tufted,  276. 
Vireo,  Red-eyed,  234. 
Vulture,  Turkey,  52. 
Warbler,   Yellow,   194. 
Waxwing,  Cedar,  244. 
Woodcock,  American,  82. 
Woodpecker,  Downy,  265. 
Woodpecker,  Red-headed,   258. 
Wren,  House,  125. 

Bird  Book,  quotation  from,  252. 
Bird  Life,  quotations  from,  12,  112. 
Bird  Lore,   quotations     from,    280, 

313. 
Birds  and  Nature,  quotation    from, 

260. 

Bird  study,  how  and  when  com- 
menced, 246. 

Birds  and  Their  Relation  to  Man, 
quotation  from,  139. 

Birds  an  inspiration  to  a  higher 
life,  305. 

Birds,  a  paradise  of,  6. 

Birds  as  allies  of  man,  298. 

Birds  as  unique  creatures,  304. 

Birds,  communication  between,  26, 
196. 

Birds,  everywhere  to  do  good,  302. 

Birds,  evolution  of,  111.        , 

Birds  in  the  country  to  come,  141. 


Birds,   God  first  cared     for     them, 

306. 

Birds,  legend  of  their  origin,  304. 
Birds  of  California,  quotation  from, 

251. 

Birds  of  cerulian  tint,  99. 
Birds  of  Illinois,     quotation     from, 

172. 
Birds   of   Indiana,    quotation   from, 

78,  251. 
Birds  of  North  America,  quotation 

from,  105. 

Birds  only  creatures  of  song,  130. 
Birds   that  Hunt   and   are   Hunted, 

quotation  from,  30. 
Birds,  why  protect  them,  297. 
Birth  and  birthplace  of  the  author, 

3. 
Blanchan,    Neltje,    quoted,    30,    116, 

120,  223,  231. 
Bluebird,  99-103. 
Blue  jay,  23-28. 
Blue  jay  buries  its  food,  28. 
Blue  jay  mates  with  robin,  25. 
Blue  jays  communicate  with  other 

birds,   28. 

Blue  jays  mimic  other  birds  in  dis- 
tress, 27. 
Blue  jays  and  sparrows  attack  owl, 

28. 

Bobolink,  165-169. 
Bob  White,  283-288. 
Bob  White,  meeting  of,  6. 
Botaurinse,  subfamily  of,  69. 
Brisson,  quoted,   243. 
Britton,   Elizabeth   G.,   quoted,   223. 
Brooks,  Jennie,  quoted,  11. 
Bronzed   grackle,   143-147. 
Brown  creeper,  279-281. 
Brown   thrasher,   115-118. 
Brown  Thrush,  115-118. 
Bubonidae,  family  of,  39. 
Bubo   virginianus,   39-43. 
Bunting,  Indigo,  225-228. 
Buntings,    species    described,    225. 
Burroughs,    John,    quoted,    99,    144, 

169,  176,  227,  257. 
Butcher  bird,  why  so  named,  60. 
Buteo  borealis,  29-33. 
Butler,  Amos  W.,  see  "Measurement 

of  birds." 
Butler,  Amos  W.,   quoted,   78,   162, 

171,  196,  232,  236,  251,  286. 
Buzzard's  Roost,  account  of,  1-8. 
Buzzard's  Roost  tree,  stump  of,   5. 
Buzzard,  Turkey,  51-56. 


326 


Index  gf  Contents — Continued 


Cabin  home  of  author's  family,  3. 
Cabins,   duplicates   of  fathers,   3. 
Caging  of  birds,  15. 

Calls  of — 

Bob  White,  285. 

Creeper,    Brown,    281. 

Crow,  American,  21. 

Cuckoo,  Yellow-billed,  189. 

Dove,  Mourning,  240. 

Duck,  Wood,  78. 

Flicker,  250. 

Grackle,    Bronzed,    144. 

Hawk,   Night,  185. 

Hawk,  Red-tailed,  33. 

Hawk,  Sparrow,  37. 

Heron,   Great  Blue,  72. 

Jay,  Blue,  26. 

Junco,  290. 

Killdeer,  89. 

Kingbird,  133. 

Kingfisher,  Belted,  66. 

Lark,  Meadow,   154. 

Nuthatch,    White-breasted,    272. 

Owl,   Great   Horned,   41. 

Owl,  Screech,  48. 

Phoebe,  137. 

Sparrow,  Tree,  294. 

Swallow,  Barn,  206.      • 

Tanager,  Scarlet,  220. 

Woodcock,  American,  85. 

Woodpecker,  Downy,  268. 

Woodpecker,  Red-headed,   263. 
Calvert,   George,  159. 
Campbell,  Walter,  quoted,  61. 
Caprimulgidae,  family  of,  181. 
Cardinal,   9-15. 

Cardinals  at  Somerleaze,  13. 
Cardinalis   cardinalis,    9-15. 
Catbird,   119-123. 
Cathartes  aura,  51-56. 
Cecropia  moth,  cocoon  of,  107. 
Cedar  waxwing,  243-247. 
Cedar    waxwing     robbing     nesting 

material,  245. 
Certhia  familiaris   americana,   279- 

281. 

Certhidse,  family  of,  279. 
Ceryle  alcyon,  63-68. 
Ceyx,  death  of,  67. 
Ceyx,  genaology  of,  67. 
Ceyx,  visit  of  to  Apollo,  67. 
Chapman  and  Reed,  quoted,  45. 
Chapman,  Frank  M.,  quoted,  12,  77, 

82,    103,    112,    114,    193,    283,    294, 

302. 


Chsetura  pelagica,  209-215. 

Charadiidae,  family  of,  87. 

Cheney,  Simon  P.,  quoted,  107,  118, 
130,  156,  162. 

Chelidon   erythrogaster,  203-207. 

Cherry  trees  at  Buzzard's  Roost, 
247. 

Chimney  swift,  209-215. 

Chinch  bug,  damage  by,  156. 

Chordeiles  virginanus,   181-186. 

Chuck-will's-widow,  place  of,  181. 

Clamatores,   suborder  of,   131. 

Cocoon  of  cecropia  moth,  107. 

Cocyzus  americanus,  187-191. 

Coffin,  Dr.  O.  S.,  quoted,  72. 

Colaptes  auratus,  249-255. 

Colinus  virginianus,   283-288. 

Collett,  Prof.  John,  quoted,  54. 

Colorado  beetle,  destroyers  of,  223. 

Color  calls  of  birds,  253. 

Color  Key  to  North  American 
Birds,  quoted,  45. 

Columbidae,  family  of,  237. 

Communication  between  birds,  26, 
196. 

Companionship  of  the  birds,  278. 

Comstock,  Professor,  quoted,  163. 

Cooke,  Wells  W.,  quoted,  13,  89,  93, 
132,  167,  183,  194,  211,  234,  284. 

Corliss'  care  of  robin's  nest,  96. 

Corvidae,  family  of,  described,  17. 

Corvus   americanus,   17-21. 

Cottage,  location  of,  6. 

Cottman,  George  S.,  quoted,  18. 

Cotton  tail  of  the  rabbit,  291. 

Coues,  Elliott,  quoted,  69,  119. 

Country,  moving  to,  3. 

Country  life,  advantages  of,  277. 

Cowbird,  149-152. 

Cratty,  Cora  Mae,  quoted,  123. 

Creeper,  Brown,  279-281. 

Creepers,  family  of,  279. 

Crow,  American,  18-21. 

Crow,  American  and  European  dis- 
tinguished, 17. 

Crow  in  disrepute  and  why,  19. 

Crow,  intelligence  of,  21. 

Crow  roost,  description  of,  18. 

Cruelty  of  killing  birds,   262. 

Cuckoo,  European,  189,  191. 

Cuckoos,  family  of,  187. 

Cuckoo,  yellow-billed,  187-191. 

Cuckoo's  feet,  peculiarity  of,  188. 

Cuculidae,  family  of,  187. 

Cyanocitta  cristata,  23-28. 

Cygninaa,  subfamily  of,  75 


327 


Index  §f  Contents — Continued 


Darwin,    Charles,    quoted,    25,    269, 

291. 

Darwinian  theory  of  evolution,  111. 
Dendrocea  aestivia,  193-197. 
Description  of — 

Bluebird,  100. 

Bobolink,  165. 

Bob  White,  284. 

Bunting,  Indigo,  225. 

Cardinal,   9. 

Catbird,  120. 

Cowbird,   149. 

Creeper,  Brown,  279. 

Crow,   American,    17. 

Cuckoo,   Yellow-billed,   188. 

Dickcissel,   171. 

Dove,  Mourning,  238. 

Duck,  Wood,  76. 

Flicker,   250. 

Goldfinch,  American,  230. 

Grackle,    Bronzed,    144. 

Grosbeak,  Rose-breasted,  221. 

Hawk,  Night,  182. 

Hawk,  Red-tailed,  30. 

Hawk;   Sparrow,   35. 

Heron,  Great  Blue,  70. 

Hummingbird,  Ruby-throated, 
175. 

Jay,  Blue,  24. 

Junco,  290. 

Killdeer,  87. 

Kingbird,  132. 

Kingfisher,  Belted,  64. 

Lark,  Meadow,  154. 

Martin,  Purple,  200. 

Nuthatch,  White-breasted,   271. 

Oriole,  Baltimore,  160. 

Owl,  Great  horned,  40. 

Owl,  Screech,  45. 

Phoebe,  138. 

Robin,  American,  92. 

Shrike,  Loggerhead,  58. 

Sparrow,  Song,  106. 

Sparrow,  Tree,  294. 

Swallow,  Barn,  203. 

Swift,   Chimney,  210. 

Tanager,  Scarlet,  217. 

Thrasher,  Brown,  116. 

Thrush,  Wood,  112. 

Titmouse,  Tufted,  276. 

Vireo,  Red-eyed,  234. 

Vulture,  Turkey,   52. 

Warbler,  Yellow,  194. 

Waxwing,  Cedar,  244. 

Woodcock,  American,  82. 

Woodpecker,  Downy,  265. 


Woodpecker,  Red-headed,   258. 

Wren,  House,  125. 
Desert  Sparrow  Hawk,  35. 
Dichromatic  color  of  screech  owls, 

45. 

Dickcissel,  171-174. 
Dolichonyx  oryziverous,  165-169. 
Douglass,      Benjamin     W.,    quoted, 

300. 

Dove,  Mourning,  237-241. 
Downy  woodpecker,  265-269. 
Dryobates  pubescens,  265-269. 
Ducks,  first  birds  acquainted  with, 

3. 

Duck,  Wood,  75-79. 
Dugmore,   A.   R.,   quoted,   117,   222, 

286. 
Dary,  Charles,  quoted,  43. 

Easter   morning,    fields   alive   with 

birds,  4. 

Easter,  "the  Lord  has  risen,"  etc.,  5. 
Easter  tramp  to  Indianapolis,  5. 
Eckstrom,  Fanny     Hardy,     quoted, 

252. 
Eggs  of— 

Bluebird,  101. 

Bobolink,  168. 

Bob  White,  285. 

Bunting,  Indigo,  226. 

Cardinal,  14. 

Catbird,   120. 

Cowbird,  151. 

Creeper,  Brown,  281. 

Crow,  American,  19. 

Cuckoo,   Yellow-billed,   189. 

Dickcissel,   172. 

Dove,  Mourning,  239. 

Duck,  Wood,  77. 

Flicker,  252. 

Goldfinch,   American,   231. 

Grackle,  Bronzed,   144. 

Grosbeak,  Rose-breasted,  222. 

Hawk,  Night,  184. 

Hawk,  Red-tailed,  31. 

Hawk,  Sparrow,  36. 

Heron,  Great  Blue,  71. 

Hummingbird,   Ruby-throated, 
178. 

Jay,  Blue,  25. 

Junco,  290. 

Killdeer,  88. 

Kingbird,  133. 

Kingfisher,  Belted,   65. 

Lark,  Meadow,  155. 

Martin,  Purple,   201. 


328 


Index  gf  Contents — Continued 


Nuthatch,   White-breasted,   272. 

Oriole,  Baltimore,  161. 

Owl,  Great  Horned,  41. 

Owl,   Screech,   47. 

Phcebe,  139. 

Robin,  American,  94. 

Shrike,  Loggerhead,  59. 

Sparrow,  Song,  106. 

Sparrow,   Tree,   294. 

Swallow,  Barn,  204. 

Swift,   Chimney,  212. 

Tanager,  Scarlet,  218. 

Thrasher,  Brown,  117. 

Thrush,  Wood,  113. 

Titmouse,  Tufted,  276. 

Vireo,  Red-eyed,  235. 

Vulture,  Turkey,  53. 

Warbler,  Yellow,  195. 

Waxwing,  Cedar,  246. 

Woodcock,  American,  84. 

Woodpecker,  Downy,  266. 

Woodpecker,  Red-headed,  261. 

Wren,  House,  126. 
Elmhurst,  wren's  nest  at,  127. 
English   sparrows     fight  bluebirds, 

101. 

English  sparrows  fight  wrens,  127. 
European   cuckoo,   account  of,   189, 

191. 

European  goldfinch,  account  of,  229. 
Evans,  Dr.  Carlton,  quoted,  161. 
Everman,  B.  W.,  quoted,  252. 
Evolution,    Darwinian     theory     of, 

111. 

Falconidae,  family  of,  described,  29. 
Falco  sparverius,  35-38. 
Farm  life,  appreciation  of,  146. 
Feathers,  birds     only  wear     them, 

304. 

Feathers,  preening  of,  255. 
Fisher,   Dr.    A.   K.,   quoted,   31,   37, 

49,  79,  83,  238. 
Flagg,  Wilson,  quoted,  235. 
Flicker,  account  of,  249-255. 
Flicker,  red-shafted,  nest  of,  251. 
Flight  of  birds,  180. 
Flight  of— 

Dove,  Mourning,  238. 

Goldfinch,  American,  231. 

Hawk,  Night,  184. 

Hawk,  Red-tailed,  32. 

Hawk,  Sparrow,  38. 

Heron,  Great  blue,  72. 

Kingfisher,  Belted,  66. 

Martin,  Purple,  200. 


Shrike,  Loggerhead,  59. 

Swallow,  Barn,  204. 

Swift,  Chimney,  213. 

Vulture,   Turkey,   55. 

Woodpecker,  Red-headed,  258. 
Flowers,  wild,  quantities  of,  6. 
Food  of — 

Bluebird,   102. 

Bobolink,  166. 

Bob  White,  287. 

Bunting,  Indigo,  228. 

Cardinal,  9. 

Catbird,  122. 

Cowbird,  152. 

Creeper,  Brown,  181. 

Crow,   American,   19. 

Cuckoo,   Yellow-billed,  190. 

Dickcissel,  173. 

Dove,  Mourning,  239. 

Duck,  Wood,  78. 

Flicker,  255. 

Goldfinch,  American,  230. 

Grackle,  Bronzed,  145. 

Grosbeak,   Rose-breasted,   223. 

Hawk,  Night,  185. 

Hawk,  Red-tailed,  31. 

Hawk,  Sparrow,  37. 

Heron,   Great  Blue,   72. 

Hummingbird,   Ruby-throated, 
178. 

Jay,  Blue,  27. 

Junco,  291. 

Killdeer,  88. 

Kingbird,  133. 

Kingfisher,  Belted,  65. 

Lark,  Meadow,  156. 

Martin,  Purple,  202. 

Nuthatch,   White-breasted,  273. 

Oriole,  Baltimore,  162. 

Owl,  Great  Horned,  42. 

Owl,  Screech,  49. 

Phoebe,  139. 

Robin,  American,  97. 

Shrike,  Loggerhead,  60. 

Sparrow,  Song,  108. 

Sparrow,  Tree,  295. 

Swallow,  Barn,  205. 

Swift,  Chimney,  215. 

Tanager,  Scarlet,  220. 

Thrasher,  Brown,  117. 

Thrush,  Wood,  113. 

Titmouse,  Tufted,  276. 

Vireo,  Red-eyed,  236. 

Vulture,  Turkey,  54. 

Warbler,  Yellow,   195. 

Waxwing,  Cedar,  246. 


329 


Index  §f  Contents — Continued 


Woodcock,  American,  82. 

Woodpecker,  Downy,  266. 

Woodpecker,  Red-headed,  262. 

Wren,  House,  128. 
Food  of  insectiverous  birds,  230. 
Forbes,  Prof.  S.  L.,  quoted,  113,  224, 

228,  246,  262. 

Forbush,  Professor,  quoted,  190. 
Forest  and  Stream,  quotation  from, 

252. 

Fringillidse,  family  of  described,  9. 
Fringillidse,  usefulness  of,  298. 
Fruit    trees    planted    at    Buzzard's 

Roost,  8. 

Gaga,  nickname  of  the  author,  173. 
Galeoscoptes   carolinensis,    119-123. 
Garrulinae,  subfamily  of,  23. 
Genesis,  quotations  from,  2,  297. 
Gentry,  Thomas  G.,  quoted,  285. 
Ghost  Hollow,  visit  to,  5. 
Gibson,  W.  Hamilton,  quoted,  152. 
Goldfinch,   American,   229-232. 
Goldfinch,  European,  229. 
Goldfinch,  robbed  of  nesting  mater- 
ials, 245. 

Goatsucker  family,  account  of,  181. 
Grackle,   Bronzed,   143-147. 
Grackles  distinguished,  143. 
Gray,  Prof.  Asa,  quoted,  297. 
Great  Blue  Heron,  69-73. 
Great  Horned  Owl,  39-43. 
Grosbeak,  Cardinal,  9-15. 
Grosbeak,  Rose-breasted,  221-224. 
Grosbeaks,  species   of,  221. 

Halcyon  days,  origin  of,  68. 

Halcyone,  daughter  of  Aeolus,  67. 

ir^alcyone  grieves  over  Ceyx,  67. 

Hallerman,  Lieutenant,  crows 
found  by,  18. 

Harper's  Magazine,  quotation  from, 
11. 

Harporhynchus  rufus,  115-118. 

Harrison,  Ft.  Benjamin,  referred 
to,  3. 

Hawks  and  Owls  from  the  Stand- 
point of  the  Farmer,  quotation 
from,  49. 

Hawks,  owls  and  shrikes  as  rodent 
destroyers,  303. 

Hawk,  Night,  181-186. 

Hawk,  Red-legged,  as  rodent  de- 
stroyer, 304. 

Hawk,  Red-tailed,  29-33. 

Hawk,  Sparrow,  35-38. 

Hazzard,  Wm.  Miles,  quoted,  166. 


Hendlee,  W.   O.,  quoted,  71. 
Heron,  Great  blue,  69-72. 
Heronries  described,  71. 
Herons,   White,   feeding,   73. 
Herrick,  Prof.,  quoted,  246. 
Hesperus,  father  of  Ceyx,  65. 
Hine,  Jane  L.,  quoted,  182. 
Hirundinidae,  family  of,  199. 
Hodge,  Dr.  C.  F.,  quoted,  297. 
Hoosier  Bards,  quotations  from,  3, 

11. 

Horned  larks,  153. 
House  wren,  125-130. 
How  Birds    Affect     the     Orchard, 

quotation  from,  266. 
Hummingbird,    ruby-throated,    175- 

180. 

Hummingbirds,  family  of,  175. 
Hybrids  of  birds,  Darwin     quoted, 

25. 

I  am  only  a  tiny  sparrow,  306. 
Icteridae,  family  of  described,  143. 
Icterus  galbula,  159-163. 
Icterus,  genus  of,  159. 
Illiger  quoted,  243. 
Illustrations  of  tongues    of    wood- 
peckers, 254. 

Increase  of  weeds,  insects  and  ro- 
dents, 298. 
Incubation   of — 

Bluebird,  101. 

Bob  White,  286. 

Bunting,  Indigo,  226. 

Cardinal,    14. 

Crow,  American,  19. 

Cuckoo,  Yellow-billed,  189. 

Dove,  Mourning,  239. 

Duck,  Wood,  77. 

Flicker,  252. 

Goldfinch,  American,  231. 

Grackle,  Bronzed,  144. 

Grosbeak,  Rose-breasted,  222. 

Hawk,  Night,  184. 

Hawk,  Red-tailed,  31. 

Hawk,  Sparrow,  36. 

Heron,  Great  blue,  71. 

Hummingbird,  Ruby-throated 
178. 

Jay,  Blue,  25. 

Kingbird,  181. 

Kingfisher,  Belted,  65. 

Lark,  Meadow,  155. 

Martin,  Purple,  201. 

Oriole,  Baltimore,  163. 

Owl,  Great  horned,  41. 


Index  gf  Contents — Continued 


Owl,  Screech,  47. 

Phoebe,  139. 

Robin,  American,  94. 

Shrike,   Loggerhead,   59. 

Sparrow,  Song,  106. 

Swallow,  Barn,   204. 

Swift,   Chimney,   212. 

Tanager,  Scarlet,   218. 

Thrush,  Wood,  113. 

Vulture,  Turkey,  53. 

Woodpecker,  Downy,  266. 

Woodpecker,  Red-headed,  261. 
Indianapolis,     author's      birthplace, 

1. 

Indiana  Academy  of  Science,  mem- 
bers of,  7. 

Indian,  Miami  chief,  grave  of,  5. 
Indigo    bunting,    225-228. 
Ingersoll,  Ernest,  quoted,  40. 
Insects,  annual  damage  by,  302. 
Insects,  a  vicious  element,  298. 
Irving,  Washington,  quoted,  168. 

Jacob's  Haven,  crows  found  there, 

18. 

Japanese  appreciate  the  heron,  73. 
Japanese  bird  drawings,  beauty  of, 

73. 

Jay,  Blue,  23-28. 
Jewish    Synagogue,     reference   to, 

215. 

Jones,  Lynds,  quoted,  47. 
Junco,  289-292. 
Junco  hyemalis,  289-292. 
Juncos,  species  of,  289. 
Judd,   Dr.   S.   D.,   quoted,   117,   122, 

173,  178,  266,  285,  299. 

Kentucky  Cardinal,  quotation  from, 
13,  15. 

Key  of  North  American  Birds,  quo- 
tation from,  69,  119. 

Killdeer,  87-90. 

King,  Prof.  F.  H.,  quoted,  37,  196, 

202,   228,   236,   239,   246,   273. 

King,  John,  referred  to,  127,  246. 

Kingbird,  131-135. 

Kingfisher,  Belted,  63-68. 

Kingfisher,  Texas,  63. 

Kingfisher,  family  of  described,  63. 

Kissing  of  cedar  waxwing,  244. 

Laniidae,  family  of  described,  57. 
Lanius  ludovicianus,  57-61. 
Larcom,  Lucy,  quoted,  118. 
Lark,  Meadow,  153-157. 


Larks,  family  of  described,   153. 
Lee's  H.  H.  Story  of  the  Robin,  96. 
Legend  of  the  barn  swallow,  206. 
Legend  of  the  belted  kingfisher,  66. 
Legend  of  the  bluebird,  100. 
Legend  of  the  cardinal,  10. 
Legend  of  the  European  robin,  92. 
Legend  of  the  origin  of  birds,  304. 
Lewis  and  Clarke's  account  of  the 

blue  jay,  23. 

Lewis,  Wm.  H.,  quoted,  260,  261. 
Life    and    Immortality,    quotation 

from,  285. 
Life   Histories   of  North  American 

Birds,  quotations  from,  23,  36. 
Linnaeus,  quoted,  74,  243. 
Loggerhead  shrike,  57-61. 
Longfellow,  Henry  W.,  quoted,  20, 

95,  205. 
Lowell,  James  Russell,  quoted,  101, 

138,  145. 

Macgillvary,  quoted  on  hybreds,  25. 
Male  birds,  migration  of,  93,  140. 
Magpie,  range  of,   23. 
Marble,  Mr.,  quoted,  196. 
Marlatt,  Prof.  C.  R.,  quoted,  301. 
Marmon,    Mrs.    Elizabeth    C.,    visit 

to,  246. 

Martin,  Purple,  199-202. 
Martlet,   description  of,   201. 
Mathews,  F.  S.,  quoted,  162. 

Mating  of — 
Bluebird,  101. 
Bob  White,  285. 
Bunting,  Indigo,  226. 
Cardinal,  13. 
Catbird,  120. 
Cowbird,  150. 

Cuckoo,  Yellow-billed,  189. 
Dove,  Mourning,  238. 
Duck,  Wood,  76. 
Flicker,  250. 
Hawk,  Red-tailed,  30. 
Hawk,  Sparrow,  36. 
Hummingbird,   Ruby-throated,. 

176. 

Killdeer,  88. 
Lark,  Meadow,  155. 
Owl,  Great  horned,  41. 
Owl,  Screech,  46. 
Shrike,  Loggerhead,  58. 
Sparrow,  Song,  106. 
Swallow,  Barn,  204. 
Tanager,  Scarlet,  218. 


331 


Index  §f  Contents — Continued 


Thrush,  Wood,  112. 

Vireo,  Redeyed,  234. 
Mavity,  Paul,  quoted,  114. 
McBride,  R.  W.,  quoted,  131. 
Meadow  Lark,  153-157. 
Meadow  Larks,  species  of,  153. 
Measurements    by    A.    W.    Butler 

of— 

Bluebird,  99. 

Bobolink,  165. 

Bob  White,  283. 

Bunting,  Indigo,  225. 

Cardinal,  9. 

Catbird,  119. 

Cowbird,  149. 

Creeper,  Brown,  279. 

Crow,  American,  17. 

Cuckoo,  Yellow-billed,  187. 

Dickcissel,  171. 

Dove,  Mourning,  237. 

Duck,  Wood,  75. 

Flicker,  249. 

Goldfinch,  American,  229. 

Grackle,  Bronzed,  143. 

Grosbeak,  Rose-breasted,  221. 

Hawk,  Night,  181. 

Hawk,  Red-tailed,  29. 

Hawk,  Sparrow,  35. 

Heron,  Great  Blue,  69. 

Hummingbird,   Ruby-throated, 

175. 

Jay,  Blue,  23. 

Junco,  289. 

Killdeer,  87. 

Kingbird,  131. 

Kingfisher,  Belted,  63. 

Lark,  Meadow,  153. 

Martin,  Purple,  199. 

Nuthatch,  White-breasted,  271. 

Oriole,   Baltimore,   159. 

Owl,  Great  horned,  39. 

Owl,  Screech,  45. 

Phoebe,  137. 

Robin,  American,  91. 

Shrike,  Loggerhead,  57. 

Sparrow,  Song,  105. 

Sparrow,  Tree,  293. 

Swallow,  Barn,  203. 

Swift,  Chimney,  209. 

Tanager,  Scarlet,  217. 

Thrasher,  Brown,  115. 

Thrush,  Wood,  111. 

Titmouse,  Tufted,  275. 

Vireo,  Red-eyed,  233. 

Vulture,  Turkey,  51. 

Warbler,  Yellow,  193. 


Waxwing,  Cedar,  243. 

Woodcock,   American,   81. 

Woodpecker,  Downy,  265. 

Woodpecker,   Red-headed,    257. 

Wren,  House,  125. 
Meat,  feeding  to  the  birds,  277. 
Megascops  asio,  45-49. 
Melanerpes    erythrocephalus,      257- 

263. 

Melospiza  fasciata,  105-109. 
Merginiae,  subfamily  of,  73. 
Merriam,  Florence  A.,  quoted,  207, 

235,  245,  286. 
Merula  migratoria,  91-97. 
Michelet,  the  historian,  quoted,  304. 
Michropodidse,    family   of,   209. 
Migration  of — 

Bluebird,  99,  100. 

Bobolink,  165,  166. 

Bob  White,  283,  284. 

Bunting,  Indigo,  225,  226. 

Cardinal,  1,  13. 

Catbird,  119,  120. 

Cowbird,  149,  150. 

Creeper,  Brown,  279,  281. 

Crow,  American,  17,  18. 

Cuckoo,    Yellow-billed,    187,    188. 

Dickcissel,  171,  172. 

Dove,  Mourning,  237,  238. 

Duck,  Wood,  75,  76. 

Flicker,   249,   250. 

Goldfinch,  American,  229. 

Grackle,  Bronzed,  143,  144. 

Grosbeak,     Rose-breasted,       221, 

222 

Hawk,  Night,  181,  183. 

Hawk,  Red-tailed,  29,  30. 

Hawk,  Sparrow,  35,  36. 

Heron,  Great  Blue,  69,  71. 

Hummingbird,   Ruby-throated, 

175,  176. 

Jay,  Blue,  23,  24. 

Junco,  289,  290. 

Killdeer,  87,  88. 

Kingbird,  131,  132. 

Kingfisher,  Belted,  63,  64. 

Lark,  Meadow,  153,  154. 

Martin,  Purple,  199,  200. 

Nuthatch,  White-breasted,  2J1. 

Oriole,  Baltimore,  159,  160. 

Owl,    Great   horned,    39,   40. 

Owl,  Screech,  45,  46. 

Phoebe,  134,  138. 

Plover,  American  golden,   89. 

Robin,  American,  91,  93. 

Shrike,  Loggerhead,  57,  58. 


332 


Index  gf  Contents — Continued 


Sparrow,  Song,  105,  106. 

Sparrow,  Tree,  293. 

Swallow,  Barn,  203,  204. 

Swift,  Chimney,  209,  210. 

Tanager,  Scarlet,  217,  218. 

Thrasher,  Brown,  115,  116. 

Thrush,  Wood,  111,  112. 

Titmouse,  Tufted,  275. 

Vireo,  Red-eyed,  233,  234. 

Vulture,  Turkey,  51,  52. 

Warbler,  Yellow,  193,  194. 

Waxwing,   Cedar,  243. 

Woodcock,  American,  81,  83. 

Woodpecker,  Downy,  265. 

Woodpecker,  Red-headed,  257. 

Wren,  House,  125,  126. 
Migration     of     Birds,      quotations 

from,  13,  89,  93,  234. 
Migration  of  birds,  study  of,  196. 
Migration    of    male    birds    in     ad- 
vance, 93. 
Miller,   Olive  Thome,     quoted,  59, 

60. 
Minnie's  land,  home     of  Audubon, 

214. 

Minott,  H.  D.,  quoted,   236. 
Mniotiltidae,   family  of,   193. 
Mohegan  Indians,  referred  to,  201. 
Molothrus  ater,  149,  152. 
Monticola  ochracea,  293. 
Moore,  Dr.  Henry,  quoted,  53,  128. 
Morpheus,  visit     of     Halcyone  to, 

67. 

Mount  Nebo,  visit  to,  5. 
Mourning  dove,  237-241. 
Moth  cecropia,  referred  to,  107. 
Munte,  Max,  quoted,  26. 
Music  by  Mrs.  and  Miss  Wheeler, 

4. 
Mythology  of  the  belted  kingfisher, 

67. 
Names,  Common,  of — 

Bobolink,  167. 

Bob  White,  284. 

Bunting,  Indigo,  225. 

Cardinal,  10. 

Flicker,  250. 

Goldfinch,   American,   230. 

Hawk,  Night,  182. 

Heron,  Great  blue,  70. 

Kingbird,  134. 

Phoebe,  137. 

Shrike,  Loggerhead,  51. 

Swift,  Chimney,  209. 

Thrasher,  Brown,  115. 

Titmouse,  Tufted,  276. 


Vulture,  Turkey,  51. 
Warbler,  Yellow,  194. 
Waxwing,  Cedar,  244. 
Woodpecker,  Downy,  267. 
Wren,  House,  129. 

Naturalist's  Summer  Evening,  The, 

quotation  from,  210. 
Nature  study,  Buzzard's  Roost  the 

place  for,  8. 

Nehrling,  Henry,  quoted,  108. 
Nesbit  beech  tree,  account  of,  259. 
Nesbit  beech  tree,  picture  of,  4. 
Nestlings,  food  of,  43,  265. 
Nesting  habits  of — 

Bluebird,  101. 

Bobolink,  168. 

Bob  White,  285. 

Bunting,  Indigo,  226. 

Cardinal,  13. 

Catbird,  120. 

Cowbird,  150. 

Creeper,   Brown,   281. 

Crow,  American,  19. 

Cuckoo,  Yellow-billed,  189. 

Dickcissel,  172. 

Dove,  Mourning,  238. 

Duck,  Wood,  76. 

Flicker,  251. 

Goldfinch,  American,  231. 

Grackle,  Bronzed,  144. 

Grosbeak,  Rose-breasted,  222. 

Hawk,  Night,  183. 

Hawk,  Red-tailed,  30. 

Hawk,  Sparrow,  36. 

Heron,  Great  blue,  71. 

Hummingbird,  Ruby-throated, 
176. 

Jay,  Blue,  25. 

Junco,  290. 

Killdeer,  88. 

Kingbird,   132. 

Kingfisher,  Belted,  64. 

Lark,  Meadow,  155. 

Martin,  Purple,  200. 

Nuthatch,  White-breasted,  272. 

Oriole,  Baltimore,  137. 

Owl,   Great  Horned,   41. 

Owl,  Screech,  47. 

Phoebe,  138. 

Robin,  American,  94. 

Shrike,  Loggerhead,  58. 

Sparrow,  Song,  106. 

Sparrow,  Tree,  294. 

Swallow,  Barn,  204. 

Swift,  Chimney,  212. 


333 


Index  gf  Contents — Continued 


Tanager,  Scarlet,  218. 

Thrasher,  Brown,  116. 

Thrush,  Wood,  112. 

Titmouse,  Tufted,  276. 

Vireo,  Red-eyed,  234. 

Vulture,  Turkey,  53. 

Warbler,  Yellow,  195. 

Waxwing,  Cedar,  245. 

Woodcock,  American,  84. 

Woodpecker,  Downy,  266. 

Woodpecker,  Red-headed,   259. 

Wren,  House,  120. 
Newkirk,  Garrett,  quoted,   280. 
Nightengale,   Virginia,   referred   to, 

10. 

Night  hawk,  181-186. 
Nuthatch,   white-breasted,   271-273. 
Nuttal,  Thomas,  quoted,  162,  185. 

Odontophorinae,  subfamily  of,  283. 
Ogilby,  Stewart,  quoted,  252. 
Only  a  Song,  quotation  from,  122. 
Oologist,  quotations  from,  151. 
Origin  of  Species,  facts  from,  269. 
Oriole,  Baltimore,  159-163. 
Our     Insect     Enemies,     quotation 

from,  301. 

Outdoor  life,  interested  in,  4. 
Owl  attacked  by    blue     jays     and 

sparrows,  26. 

Owl,  Barn,  food   of,   43,  303. 
Owl,  Great  horned,  39-43. 
Owl,  Screech,  45-49. 
Owls,  hawks  and  shrikes,  as  rodent 

destroyers,  303. 
Owls,  Sight  of,  48. 

Parker,  Benjamin  S.,  quoted,  3,  11. 
Parkhurst,  Mr.,  quoted,  71,  290. 
Parinae,  subfamily  of,  271,  275. 
Parus  bicolor,  273-278. 
Passerinae  cyanea,  225-228. 
Peabody,  Selim  A.,  quoted,  19,  66. 
Pectinated     toes     of     great     blue 

heron,  70. 
Pendulum  play  of  hummingbird, 

176. 

Pennsylvania,    Scalp   Act   of,   304. 
Perdicinae,  subfamily  of,  283. 
Phainopepla,  mention  of,  244. 
Phillips,  Charles  L.,  quoted,  252. 
Philohela  minor,  81-85. 
Phoebe,   137-141. 

Picidae,  family  of  described,  249. 
Pigeon,    grass    destroyed   by   dove, 

239. 


Pigeon   grass    destruction,    illustra- 
tion of,  300. 

Pioneer  life,  allusion  to,   232. 

Piranga  erythromelas,  217-220. 

Plant  World,  quotation  from,  223. 

Plover,    American      golden,    migra- 
tion of,  89. 

Pools  and  rivulets  in  springtime, 
277. 

Powder-down   feathers    described, 
69. 

Porter,  Gene  Stratton,  quoted,  14. 

Preening  of  feathers  of  birds,  255. 

Progne  subis,   199-202. 

Protective  coloration,  219,  252,  280. 

Purple  martin,   199-202. 

Quaker  bird,  name  of  waxwing, 

244. 
Quiscalus  quiscula  aenas,  143-147. 

Rabbit,  cotton  tail  of,  291. 
Range  of — 

Bluebird,  100. 

Bobolink,   167. 

Bob  White,  284. 

Bunting,  Indigo,  226. 

Cardinal,  13. 

Catbird,  120. 

Cowbird,  150. 

Creeper,   Brown,   281. 

Crow,  American,   18. 

Cuckoo,  Yellow-billed,  188. 

Dickcissel,  172. 

Dove,  Mourning,   238. 

Duck,  Wood,  76. 

Flicker,  250. 

Goldfinch,  American,  229. 

Grackle,  Bronzed,  144. 

Grosbeak,   Rose-breasted,  222. 

Hawk,  Night,  183. 

Hawk,  Red-tailed,  30. 

Hawk,  Sparrow,  36. 

Heron,  Great  Blue,  71. 

Hummingbird,  ruby-throated,  176- 

Jay,  Blue,  24. 

Junco,  289. 

Killdeer,  88. 

Kingbird,  132. 

Kingfisher,  Belted,  64. 

Lark,  Meadow,  154. 

Martin,  Purple,  200. 

Nuthatch,  White-breasted,  272. 

Oriole,  Baltimore,  160. 

Owl,  Great  horned,   40. 

Owl,  Screech,  46. 


334 


Index  sf  Contents — Continued 


Phoebe,  138. 

Robin,  American,  92. 

Shrike,  Loggerhead,  58. 

Sparrow,  Song,  106. 

Sparrow,  Tree,  293. 

Swallow,  Barn,  204. 

Swift,  Chimney,  210. 

Tanager,  Searlet,  218. 

Thrasher,  Brown,   116. 

Thrush,   Wood,    112. 

Titmouse,   Tufted,   275. 

Vireo,  Red-eyed,  234. 

Vulture,  Turkey,  52. 

Warbler,   Yellow,   194. 

Waxwing,  Cedar,  244. 

Woodcock,  American,  83. 

Woodpecker,  Downy,  256. 

Woodpecker,   Red-headed,   258. 

Wren,  House,  126. 
Reaumer  quoted,  301. 
Recognition  marks  and  signals, 

253,  291. 

Recollect,    name    of     religious    so- 
ciety, 244. 

Recollect,  name  of  waxwing,  244. 
Red-headed  woodpecker,  257-263. 
Red-tailed  hawk,  29-33. 
Reed,  C.  Albert,  quoted,  251. 
Regurgitation,   feeding   by,   42,   65, 

178. 

Reminiscences  of  school  days,  5. 
Reptiles,  birds  evolved  from,  111. 
Red-eyed  vireo,  233-236. 
Rice  crop,  destruction  of,  166,  167. 
Ridgway,  Robert,  quoted,  105,  143, 

172. 

Riley,  Jas.  Whitcomb,  quoted,  23. 
Robin,  American,  91-97. 
Robin,  European,  legend  of,  92. 
Robin  and  blue  jay,  mating  of,  25. 
Robin,   song  of,   inspiration  of,   95, 

305. 

Rocky  Mountains,  visit  to,  240. 
Rodents   as   destructive   pests,   303. 
Rodents  a  vicious  element,  298. 
Rolling  Bank,  location  of,  65. 
Rookery  of  crows,  18. 
Rookery  of  turkey  vultures,  54. 
Rose-breasted   grosbeak,   221-224. 
Ruby-throated     hummingbird,    175- 

180. 

Sabbath  day  tramping,  4. 
Sanderson,  Prof.,  quoted,  273. 
Sangster,  Margaret  B.,  quoted,  127. 
Sapsucker,  Little,  mentioned,  267. 


Sayornis   phoebe,    137-141. 

Scalp  Act  of  Pennsylvania,  304. 

Scarlet  tanager,  217-220. 

School  day  reminiscences,  4. 

School  house  at  Ft.  Benjamin  Har- 
rison, 5. 

School     house,  changed     condition 
of,  5. 

Scolding  habits  of  wrens,  125. 

Scolopacidas,  family  of,  81. 

Screech  owl,  45-49. 

Screech  owls,  species  of,  45. 

Shades  of  Death,  account  of,  53. 

Shakespeare  quoted,  201. 

Sham  nests  of  house  wren,  126. 

Shrike,  Loggerhead,  57-61. 

Shrike,  Northern,  account  of,  57. 

Shrikes,  owls  and  hawks  as  rodent 
destroyers,  303. 

Sialia  sialis,  99-103. 

Sialis  mexicanus  occidentalis,  100. 

Sitta  carolinensis,   271-273. 

Sittinae,  subfamily  of,  271. 

Small  things  the  best  things,  128. 

Smith,  D.  L.,  quoted,  61. 

Smith,  D.  S.,  quoted,  29. 

Smokehouses,     old     fashioned,  de- 
scribed, 277. 

Somerleaze,  crows    feeding    there, 
20. 

Somerleaze,  pair  of  cardinals  there, 
13. 

Sommus,  vision  of,  67. 

Song  sparrow,  105-109. 

Songs  of  birds,  95. 

Song  of  birds  excels  all  others, 
305. 

Songs  of — 
Bluebird,  103. 
Bobolink,   168. 
Bunting,  Indigo,  227. 
Cardinal,  11. 
Catbird,  121. 
Dickcissel,  173. 
Goldfinch,  American,  231. 
Grosbeak,  Rose-breasted,   223. 
Lark,  Meadow,  156. 
Oriole,  Baltimore,  162. 
Robin,  American,  95. 
Sparrow,  Song,  107. 
Tanager,  Scarlet,  219. 
Thrasher,  Brown,  118. 
Thrush,  Wood,  113. 
Titmouse,  Tufted,  278. 
Vireo,  Red-eyed,  235. 


Index  §f  Contents — Continued 


Warbler,  Yellow,  196. 

Wren,  House,  129. 
Songs   uttered   only   by   birds   and 

man,  130. 

Sparrow  family  described,  105. 
Sparrow  hawk,  American,  35-38. 
Sparrow  hawk,     Cuban,  described, 

35. 
Sparrow  hawk,     Desert,  described, 

35. 

Sparrow  hawks,  species  of,  35. 
Sparrow,  I  am  only  a  tiny,  306. 
Sparrows  and  blue  jay  attack  owl, 

26. 

Sparrows  as  weed  destroyers,  298. 
Sparrow,  Song,  105-109. 
Sparrow,  Tree,  292-295. 
Spider,  golden-striped,  107. 
Spiders,  webs  of,  107. 
Spinus  tristis,  229-232. 
Spiza  americana,  171-174. 
Spizella  monticola,   293-295. 
Spring  and  autumn  compared,  277. 
Spring  Valley  described,  5. 
Stanton,  Henry  T.,  quoted,  283. 
St.  Catharine  of  Genoa,  church  of, 

215. 

Stedman,  Edmund  C.,  quoted,  103. 
St.  Lucas  sparrow  hawk,  35. 
Stoddard,   Mr.,  quoted,  196. 
Story  of  the  Birds,  quotations  from, 

172,  239,  253,  277,  291. 
Stump  of  Buzzard's  Roost  tree,  6, 

7. 

Sturnell  magna,  153-157. 
Sugar  bird,   275-278. 
Sugar  making,  delights  of,  277. 
Supper  with  the  Wheeler  family,  4. 
Swallow,  Barn,  203-207. 
Swift,  Chimney,  209-215. 

Tanager,  Scarlet,  217-220. 
Tanagridae,  family  of,  217. 
Tangled  Stars,  quotation  from,  227. 
Taylor,  Robert  S.,  quoted,  128. 
Terrapin,  land,  nest  of,  147. 
Tetraonidae,  family  of,  283. 
Texas  kingfisher,  species  of,  63. 
Thicket  at  Somerleaze,  228. 
Thomas,  Edith  M.,  quoted,  273. 
Thompson,   Dr.   Daniel,   quoted,   53. 
Thompson,  Maurice,  quoted,  71, 

101. 
Thompson,   Ernest   Seton,    quoted, 

65,  129,  133,  171,  238,  245. 


Thorns  and  thistles,  meaning  of, 
298. 

Thrasher,   Brown,   115-118. 

Thrush,   Brown,   115-118. 

Thrush,  Wood,  account  of,  111-114. 

Thrushes,  the  silver  'tongued  fam- 
ily, 112. 

Titmouse,  Tufted,  275-278. 

Todd's  ducks  feed  and  paddle,  3. 

Tongue  of  hummingbird,  178. 

Tongue  of  woodpecker,  illustrated, 
254. 

Torrey,  Bradford,  quoted,  202. 

Tramping,  account  of,  4. 

Tramp,  approach  of  supposed,  6. 

Tramp  with  Bob  White,  7. 

Trapping  of  birds,  14. 

Tree   sparrow,   293-295. 

Tree  sparrows  in  Iowa,  295. 

Tree  sparrows,  species  of,  293. 

Trinity  cemetery,  chimney  swift 
scene  at,  214. 

Trochilidse,  family  of,  175. 

Trochilus  colubris,  175-180. 

Troglodytes  sedon,   125-130. 

Troglodytidae,  family  of,  115. 

Troglodytinae,   subfamily  of,   125. 

Trumball,  Gordon,  quoted,  82. 

Tufted  titmouse,   275-278. 

Tulip  tree,  prostrate  trunk  of,  6. 

Tulip  tree,  where  buzzards  roost- 
ed, 7. 

Turdidse,  family  of  described,  99. 

Turdinae,    subfamily   of,    111. 

Turdus   mustelinus,   111-114. 

Turkey  vulture,  51-56. 

Two  Vanishing  Birds,  quotations 
from,  79,  83. 

Tyrannidae,  family  of  described, 
131,  137. 

Tyrannus  tyrannus,  131-135. 

Vandercook's  farm  visited,  6. 
Vandyke,  Mr.,  quoted,  196. 
Vegetable     kingdom     essential     to 

life,  297. 
Vicious  elements  to  contend  with, 

298. 

Vireo  olivaceous,  233-236. 
Vireo,  Red-eyed,  233-234. 
Vireonidae,  family  of  described, 

231. 
Virginia  nightengale,     referred  to, 

210. 
Vulture,  Turkey,  51-56. 


336 


Index  §f  Contents — Continued 


Walton,  Izaak,  a  lone  fisherman, 
65. 

Warblers,  family  of  described,  193. 

Warbler,  Yellow,  193-197. 

Waxwing,  Cedar,  243-247. 

Webber,  the  naturalist,  quoted,  179 

Weed  and  Dearbond,  quoted,  139, 
297,  300. 

Weed,  Prof.,  quoted,  304. 

Weed  destruction,  problem  of,  298. 

Weeds   a   vicious   element,   298. 

Weed  seed  destroyed  by  sparrows, 
299. 

Wethereld,  Ethelwin,  quoted,  227. 

Wheeler,  Jason  M.,  account  of,  4. 

Wheelock,  Mrs.  quoted,  251. 

Wherefore  kill  them  all,  — 

Whip-poor-will,  account  of,  181, 
182 

White,  Bob,  meeting  of,  6. 

White,  Bob,  tramp  with,  6,  7. 

White-breasted    nuthatch,    271-273. 

White,  Gilbert,  quoted,  42,  210,  303. 

White,  M.  A.,  quoted,  151. 

Why  protect  the  birds,  297. 

Wild  Birds  and  Their  Music,  quo- 
tations from,  162. 

Wilson,  Alexander,  quoted,  23,  41, 
46,  56,  61,  72,  77,  81,  82,  89,  102, 
113,  116,  119,  135,  138,  145,  153, 
218,  251,  257. 

Wood,  H.  L.,  quoted,  212. 

Wood,  Theodore,  quoted,  301. 

Wood,  Wm.  A.,  quoted,  48. 


Woodcock,  American,  81-85. 
Woodcocks   distinguished,  81. 
Wood  duck,  75-79. 
Wood  Notes  Wild,  quotations  from, 

107,  118. 

Woodpecker,  Downy,  265-269. 
Woodpecker  family  described,  249. 
Woodpecker  family,     protectors  of 

trees,  269. 
Woodpecker,     Golden-winged,     249- 

255. 

Woodpecker,  Little  Guinea,  267. 
Woodpecker,   Red-headed,   257-263. 
Woodruff,  F.  M.,  quoted,  58. 
Wood  thrush,   111-114. 
Woollen,  Evans,  Jr.,  quoted,  173. 
Woollen's    Garden    of    Birds    and 

Botany,  6-8. 

Wordsworth,  William,  quoted,  191. 
Wren,  House,  125-130. 
Wren,  Winter,  discovery  of,  24. 
Wren's  nest  at  Elmhurst,  127. 
Wright,  Mable  Osgood,  quoted,  112, 

235. 

Yellow-billed  cuckoo,  187-191. 
Yellow  hammer,  249-255. 
Yellow  warbler,  193-197. 
Young,  Oologist,     quotation    from, 
252. 

Zamelodia  ludoviciana,   221-224. 
Zenaidura  macro  rura,  237-241. 


337 


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